A juror on the Lindsay Clancy murder case said that four of the 12 members on that jury weren’t convinced that the Massachusetts mom accused of killing her three young children wasn’t responsible due to insanity when deliberations began. In the end, the lone holdout was a Black man. That surprised interviewer Gayle King.
Juror Paula Devlin joined “CBS Mornings” to talk about her role in the mistrial declared last week following six weeks of testimony that largely focused on the defendant’s mental state when she allegedly strangled her kids in January 2023.
Devlin said eight jurors including herself began deliberation believing that Clancy, 36, was experiencing a psychotic episode when her children were killed in suburban Boston. Eventually all of the jurors except one came to that conclusion, she said.
After asking Devlin about the demographic composition of the jury, King deduced that nine white women and two white men voted in favor or ruling that Clancy’s mental state rendered her not criminally responsible for her children’s deaths.
“A Black man is a holdout juror?” King asked.
The CBS interviewer seemed stunned when Devin confirmed her conclusion was correct.
“Whoa, I have to sit with that for just a second,” King said before continuing the interview.
According to Devlin, the holdout juror struggled to understand how a mom could individually kill a 5-year-old, a 3-year-old and an infant, then jump out of a window without fully realizing what she was doing.
King came back to her surprise over the holdout juror’s race at the end of her nearly 18-minute talk with Devlin.
“I’m very fascinated by the holdout juror, learning the he’s a Black man today,” King said. “Can you just tell me his age, I’m very curious.”
Devlin guessed the man was in his 30s.
Juror Nick Dargie didn’t mention the holdout’s race when he spoke about the trial with ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Thursday. But he described that juror as uncooperative and unreasonable.
“There wasn’t a single piece of evidence or witness testimony that he used to prove why he was thinking the way he was,” he said.
Dargie claimed that juror inexplicably tied one of the exercise bands Clancy allegedly used in the killing around a water bottle and simulated a strangulation.
The holdout juror hasn’t come forward.