There appears to be an 11-1 split among jurors who are amid a sixth day of deliberations in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy.
On Thursday, after a heated sidebar, the judge, William Sullivan, questioned members of the jury under oath, one by one. They appeared to nod their heads affirmatively. He then called the jurors into the courtroom as a group, spoke to them about the legal definition of reasonable doubt, and then sent them off to continue their deliberations.
As the jury filed out, sighs and muttering filled the courtroom. The crowd had been tense as people in the gallery strained to catch the gestures of the lawyers speaking at the sidebar, their voices drowned out by white noise over the courtroom’s speakers.
Ms. Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, stood at the court’s lectern after and said the court should eject one juror.
“The court has an instruction from the foreperson of that jury that’s been working for a week now, saying that there’s one juror who refuses to listen to the law that you’ve given him or her on reasonable doubt,” Mr. Reddington said.
He said it would be “a real shame” if there were a mistrial because a juror “spurned the instructions of this court.”
A prosecutor, Jennifer Sprague, said that asking each juror individually if he or she could follow the law was appropriate and that there was “no way to determine what the deliberations are.”
Judge Sullivan said he didn’t want to side with “one juror or 11.”
As the crowd filed out, a woman with reddened eyes who had been watching from the back row dabbed away tears that were rolling down her face.
Remy Tumin contributed reporting.
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