Judge denies hearing on Clancy holdout juror

A Massachusetts judge denied Lindsay Clancy’s request for an evidentiary hearing to investigate the juror whose refusal to join the other 11 jurors led to a mistrial in her trial for killing her three children. Judge William Sullivan said the need for a mistrial must be assessed using information available when it was declared, and that probing the juror’s reasoning or deliberations would be improper. Clancy’s attorneys had raised questions about the juror’s jury-selection questionnaire and possible cellphone use or outside information, seeking to support a bid to dismiss the murder charges on double-jeopardy grounds; that motion remains pending. After the mistrial, jurors gave conflicting accounts of whether the holdout expressed reasonable doubt, while the juror has publicly defended his position and described his view of the evidence. The case is scheduled for further arguments on Nov. 2, and the mistrial resulted in neither a conviction nor an acquittal.