Male Lindsay Clancy juror reveals what happened behind closed doors with holdout juror
Nick Dargie, one of the 12 jurors on the Lindsay Clancy trial, has become the latest person to speak out about the high-profile case.
Last week Clancy's trial was declared a mistrial after the jury told the judge that they could not reach a unanimous decision. It has since come to light that there was one holdout juror preventing the 36-year-old from being acquitted of first-degree murder.
Now jurors who were part of the trial have been speaking out about this particular individual, who has not been publicly identified.
25-year-old Nick Dargie was one of the three males on the jury. Speaking to ABC News, he said of the holdout juror (who was also male): "There were several times I would ask him to show us evidence or, you know, describe a witness testimony that helped to prove what he was saying and... he couldn't."
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Dargie continued: "There wasn't a single piece of evidence or witness testimony that he used to prove why he was thinking the way he was, which is why we ultimately sent in that note.
"Otherwise, like there's nothing wrong with somebody having a completely opposite opinion ... that would be a hung jury. That, like that, is our justice system."
The jury sent four notes to the judge during the trial. The first two stated that the jury was deadlocked, a third raised issues with the holdout juror and reasonable doubt, and the fourth told the judge that they could not come to a verdict despite nearly 40 hours of deliberations.
Following the mistrial, it's now in the hands of prosecutors to decide whether they want Clancy to face a second trial.
As it stands, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz has not yet announced a decision on whether to retry Clancy.
Speaking outside the court when a mistrial was declared on September 4, Cruz said: "I appreciate the fact that there are strong feelings and opinions tied to this case.
"However, our job is to set aside our feelings and focus solely on the facts. The facts are Lindsay Clancy killed her three children and the evidence suggested to us that she was in control of her actions when she committed those homicides."
Other jurors have spoken out following the high-profile case as well.
Kellie Farina and two others chatted to NBC10 Boston. During the interview, Farina was asked about the harrowing call (which was not released to the public) that was played to the court. The call was of Patrick Clancy calling 911 after discovering his injured wife and deceased children.
"It’s something I will never not hear if I think about it. It was the most horrific thing," Farina said.
"When we heard it again in the jury room, we were crying again. We were just like, 'Oh my God.'"
She added that the despair in Patrick's voice was 'something that will stick with her'.
Everything else jurors have said about the Lindsay Clancy trial so far
In the US, once a trial is over, jurors are allowed to speak out about the case they were assigned to and what happened in their deliberations. So far, five jurors have opted to go public about what went on during the high-profile trial.
All but one agreed on a not guilty by insanity verdict
The foreperson, Roni Carlson, confirmed that they had all agreed to return a not guilty verdict, having not been swayed by the prosecution's case; however, one holdout juror refused to find Clancy not guilty by insanity, resulting in a mistrial being declared.
Deliberations filled with 'lots of crying'
Carlson, a retired fifth-grade teacher, admitted it was 'heartbreaking' to be unable to reach a unanimous verdict in the case, adding that the deliberations were filled with 'lots of crying' and 'lots of tears and then hugging'.
"I was so sad, so sad that we couldn't come up with a verdict for Lindsay. It was so heartbreaking," she said.
Holdout juror 'admitted he had reasonable doubt'
According to Carlson, the entire 12-person jury had agreed on a not guilty by insanity verdict, apart from one, who she said was male.
She told NBC he 'admitted he had reasonable doubt and I started filling out the forms, I was so excited'.
However, when she was partway through filling out the three verdict sheets, she claims he told the group: "But I'm still not going to say that she's not guilty by reason of insanity."
The holdout juror was a point of contention in the emotionally charged trial after Clancy's defence team attempted to lodge a last-minute appeal alleging the juror was 'biased' and not following the court's instructions on reasonable doubt. The appeal was unsuccessful.
Deliberations led to fights and shouting
The group deliberated for a total of nearly 40 hours, which resulted in a lot of yelling which could be heard through the walls, according to the three jurors interviewed by NBC.
"We weren't trying to figure out if she murdered the children. She did and she's admitted that," Carlson explained. "We're trying to figure out - did she know right from wrong at that time."
Holdout juror supposedly questioned toxicology reports
Another juror, who works for a government defence contractor, said the lone juror was questioning the meds Clancy was prescribed leading up to the deaths of her three children: "We had the toxicology reports. We could see exactly the amounts."
The juror added that nurses on the panel were discussing this but the holdout juror 'just completely disregarded the information that they gave'.
The lone juror in question has not spoken out.
"Everything proved that she loved her children"
The foreperson told NBC that they weren't convinced by the prosecution's case, saying that Clancy 'had to have snapped and not known what she was doing'.
Prosecutors were 'very, very harsh'
The third juror to go public, a chef at a senior centre, said she found the prosecutors to be 'very, very harsh'.
"They had no character witness in regard to Lindsay of being a bad mother," they added.
Holdout juror accused of being 'very arrogant'
Paula Devlin claimed the juror 'was very arrogant'. "He really did not take anything that anybody said," she added, with another juror, Kellie Farina, alleging that he 'would not interact with us'.
Anonymous juror says there was 'too much doubt' to reach a guilty verdict
A fourth juror, who opted to remain anonymous, spoke to WBZ-TV's Kristina Rex and said: "At the end of the day, there was so much doubt. The prosecution didn't have a figurative smoking gun.
"There was not a single moment throughout the presentation of that case where you could say 'Yup, 100% I'm certain she did it' or that she didn't do it. There was too much gray area."
Topics: Lindsay Clancy, True crime, US News
Niamh Shackleton