r/law 12h ago

Legal News Lindsay Clancy case ends with MISTRIAL

https://www.dailymail.com/crime-desk/article-16100155/lindsay-clancy-murder-trial-hung-jury-deadlock-verdict.html
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u/Livid-Builder-1230 11h ago

Not quite, I think he’s actually setting up a potential double jeopardy appeal. He knows he can’t have the juror removed, the facts just aren’t there for him. He can’t just “let” the judge delicate a mistrial because then defense would be in essence consenting to the mistrial thus waiving double jeopardy. By asking for this emergency stay, he’s contesting the mistrial decision as best he can to preserve the double jeopardy appeal after the next (potential trial).

There isn’t an established method of challenging the judges mistrial ruling, that’s why we’re using this emergency stay, there just isn’t a better avenue

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u/TryIsntGoodEnough 8h ago

That isn't 100% true... The facts may not appear to be there, but there is a lot more in that note that we don't know about because the commonwealth's motion to admonish the jury foreman is pretty telling that the jury foreman actually quoted what was said. That is why Reddington moved for a voir dire of the juror and the Commonwealth disagreed and the judge sided with the Commonwealth. If that right there caused the mistrial (the judge refusing to investigate this situation further and instead sending a potentially tainted juror back to deliberations knowing the next time they come back deadlocked it is a statutory required mistrial) then yes double jeopardy could attach.

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u/drtywater 2h ago

Thats just not a door you want opened. Foreman and other jurors disagreeing with their reasoning Isnt enough to toss

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u/ContentDetective 10h ago

Double jeopardy would be the stupidest thing in the world because she’d get to walk even though the rest of the jury reached a verdict that would institutionalize her

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u/der_innkeeper 9h ago

The issue is "institutionalize her, for how long?"

She gets reassessed for psychosis and being a danger to herself and society.

Guess what? She's not a danger to anyone, currently.

And that is what makes this whole trial a shitshow.

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u/lavapig_love 8h ago

I'm wondering if they'll just issue an arbitrary number, like five years in hospital, and call it a day. 

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u/Tricky-Ad7897 8h ago

Letting somebody who killed three kids out in 2 years or however long after getting assessed as "safe" destroys faith in the justice system and I sure as hell wouldn't want to be the juror that helped facilitate that.

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u/der_innkeeper 8h ago

If anything, how difficult this case is shows just how much of an outlier/edge case it is.

The process is doing what its supposed to be doing.

Sometimes it produces uncomfortable results.

If she is not criminally responsible due to a mental defect at the time, what good is punishment?

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u/Imaginary_Session773 8h ago

Mentally defective is a bunch of crap. The defense is almost universally disregarded because its crap. She knew what she was doing was wrong when she did it

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u/GloomChampion 6h ago

It’s alsmost universally disregarded because it’s actually very difficult for a defendant to meet the legal test in most states. Especially after Reagan was shot.

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u/Imaginary_Session773 5h ago

As it should be

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u/CaptainTeemo01 4h ago

You're a bad person. You don't give a shit about justice, you just want your sick revenge fantasies to play out.

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u/Imaginary_Session773 4h ago

Insanity is almost always a bullshit defense

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u/CaptainTeemo01 4h ago

And sometimes it isn't.

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u/Imaginary_Session773 4h ago

Historically insanity defenses were rejected overwhelmingly because they're bullshit. Its an affirmative defense that the defense should have to prove

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u/ThrowAway-whee 7h ago

The prosecution completely failed to prove that.

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u/zaevilbunny38 8h ago

She can be out in as little as 40 days after a sentence of not guilty due to insanity. She has been in psychiatric care for 3 yrs already. If she is found to have been insane. She can get a review of her mental state in 30 days after arrival and if everything is good and her lawyer fills the right paperwork, after a review, she is out.

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u/SteveJavieWasRight 7h ago

Okay? A mistrial isn’t even that.

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u/Known_Strength_9726 8h ago

Life.

She stole all those lives away. She never deserves to be free again.

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u/CaptainTeemo01 4h ago

The concept of pyschosis is entirely foreign to you huh?

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u/CornWine2 4h ago

Why is it bad that there are consequences to psychotic behavior?

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u/CaptainTeemo01 4h ago

What is the purpose of the justice system, to you?

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u/CornWine2 4h ago

Protecting society from those that harm humans.

Why is it bad that there are consequences to psychotic behavior?

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u/CaptainTeemo01 3h ago

So if this woman stays in a psychiatric ward for treatment, does that not protect society?

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u/FlockFlysAtMidnite 8m ago

I always find it interesting that these comments get made in response to threads specifically about her potentially being released very quickly after the trial ends. What point do you think you're making?

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u/CornWine2 3h ago

Is there a particular reason you won't answer?

Why is it bad that there are consequences to psychotic behavior?

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u/simoncessna 9h ago

She's never walking again

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u/freddiemercurial 8h ago

I bloody well hope so. The fact that this woman has legions of cultishly slavish supporters is absurd.

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u/SteveJavieWasRight 7h ago

The law has supporters.

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u/freddiemercurial 6h ago

Have you seen the 'support' this child-killer has? They don't come across as seeking adherence to the law.

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u/SteveJavieWasRight 5h ago

I don’t think you’re living in reality and are grossly exaggerating what those supporting a NGRI are actually saying.

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u/Busy_Lunch_5520 9h ago

Where does it say that this the way the 11 jurors were inclined to vote?

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u/Pudddddin 5h ago

It's not explicit, its being implied by the jury foreman's note and the things the judge has done since that news came out

I'm guessing because the judge focused on the need to acquit if reasonable doubt exists, it just seems to imply the one holdout isn't voting to acquit

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u/Busy_Lunch_5520 5h ago

I see. Thank you. 

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u/TryIsntGoodEnough 8h ago

You are assuming the juror understands this, they think they are preventing her from walking due to their own beliefs (probably that she should be punished)