Clancy trial jury nears verdict or mistrial after 11-1 split

The Lindsay Clancy murder trial resumed Friday with the jury divided 11-1 after 35 hours of deliberations, putting the case close to either a verdict or a mistrial.

Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan held a brief hearing before jurors returned to the courtroom. Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, argued that the lone holdout should be removed because the juror allegedly was not following the judge’s instructions on reasonable doubt. Reddington went so far as to say, "I would go so far as to say he lied under oath."

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I would go so far as to say he lied under oath.

Sullivan rejected the request. "I'm not going to do a further inquiry of this juror," he said, adding that jurors must accept the law as he had given it to them. The judge had questioned jurors individually on Thursday after the foreperson sent a note identifying the alleged holdout, then addressed the full panel about the presumption of innocence and the prosecution’s burden of proof.

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I'm not going to do a further inquiry of this juror.

Reddington had sought to replace the juror with one of six alternates and restart deliberations. The judge rejected that request Thursday and again after Friday’s hearing. Defense lawyers have said they want to avoid a mistrial, while prosecutors want the jury to continue despite saying twice this week that it was deadlocked.

CBS legal contributor Caroline Polisi described the dispute as a question of whether a juror refuses to follow the law or is simply applying the facts differently. "If there is a holdout, there's a holdout. That's a hung jury and that would be a mistrial," she said. She also called the proceedings increasingly tense after jurors reported concerns about one another.

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If there is a holdout, there's a holdout. That's a hung jury and that would be a mistrial.