A judge on Massachusetts’ top court Friday denied a last minute attempt by Lindsay Clancy’s lawyers to prevent the judge who had presided over her triple-murder trial from declaring a mistrial.
The decision came some two hours after Judge William Sullivan told the court he would declare a mistrial after the jury weighed Clancy’s fate failed — for the third time — to reach a verdict in the case of the mother accused of the strangling deaths of her three young children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, in 2023.
But instead of settling for a mistrial, Clancy’s lawyer Kevin Reddington suddenly announced that he wanted to appeal to Massachusetts’ top court.
Sullivan, who had just informed the court that he’d received a note from the jury saying that “with a heavy heart” it was still deadlocked, gave Reddington an hour.
The hour stretched into two before defense attorney Kevin Reddington’s associate, Dana Goldblatt, was able to ask a state Supreme Judicial Court judge on a Zoom call to remove a holdout juror from the panel.
Goldblatt argued that they believe this juror is refusing to “follow what the law states.”
But Supreme Judicial Court Associate Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt denied the stay.
Now, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz has to decide whether to try Clancy again in front of a different jury, for first-degree murder or less serious charges.
