Lindsay Clancy Defense Suffers New Setback Ahead Of November Hearing

The Lindsay Clancy defense team took a hit this week when a judge denied several requests ahead of her possible retrial. Read on for more details.

Reddington Files Motions

According to Court TV, attorney “Kevin Reddington, filed a motion to dismiss the charges against her on double jeopardy grounds.”

If you watched the case, you will know that one juror held out, and Reddington wanted to get him removed. The outlet noted that “he argued the mistrial was unwarranted because the holdout juror should have been removed.”

Reddington also filed a second motion, which Lawyer Lee discussed on her YouTube on Thursday. She explained that “after yesterday’s ruling, that argument just got a lot harder for the defense.”

The 11-1 Standoff

Clancy’s trial for the deaths of her three children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and eight-month-old Callan, ran for weeks, but the jury ended up deadlocked.

Reports showed 11 jurors were persuaded by her argument that she was in “postpartum psychosis and not criminally responsible.”

Only one man, Michael P. Desronvil held out. He insisted she was both guilty and criminally responsible. Lee explained that because 11 to 1 was “really, really close,” the defense tried everything to avoid starting from scratch.

They claimed trying her again would violate “double jeopardy.”

Questionnaires and Cell Phones

Lindsay Clancy’s attorneys filed motions demanding a trove of evidence. They asked for a “subpoena to go to his cell phone carrier” and wanted the juror to “hand over his phone to a neutral third party.”

The defense team for Lindsay Clancy claimed he “refused to follow the law on reasonable doubt.” They also suggested he “may have lied on his juror questionnaire” about past domestic issues and spent deliberations scrolling on his phone.

However, Desronvil denied failing to follow the law and maintained that he had answered his juror questionnaire truthfully.

Lawyer Lee pointed out that “those last two requests really raised eyebrows.” She noted that “I have never heard of a court ordering a juror to turn over a cell phone” because doing so “could make it way harder to get jurors to serve.”

Lee also discussed allegations that the holdout juror spent time scrolling on his phone. However, she pointed out that reports of him watching videos did not establish that he was doing so during deliberations.

The Judge Says No

The judge didn’t buy into the requests by the defense and refused to order an evidentiary hearing or force the juror to answer questions.

As Lee explained, reading directly from the judge’s ruling, post-trial information simply “is not relevant to whether there was a manifest necessity for a mistrial.”

Post-trial media stories cannot undo a clear deadlock.

Besides, Lee noted that the judge concluded any further inquiry was inappropriate given the strict mandate that “the court must not delve into a juror’s subjective reasoning” or “inquire into the jury’s deliberative content.”

Looking To November

The court will still hold a hearing on November 2. Clancy could technically still win her double jeopardy motion, but her odds took a big hit.

Without new evidence from that holdout juror, her attorneys don’t “have much extra to go on.” Notably, the legal argument will likely fail in front of the trial judge, but “this argument will be extremely important though on appeal.”

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