Lindsay Clancy judge explodes at her lawyer in furious clash over holdout juror: ‘What do you want me to do!’: Live updates

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington accused the judge of ‘glossing over the issue’ and being ‘soft’ on the reasonable doubt instruction.

‘I would ask that you not just give them as I described it yesterday, as a soft inquiry: “Will you listen to my instructions?”‘ Reddington said.

‘I would ask that you specifically direct their attention to proof beyond a reasonable doubt and reinstruct them on that forcefully.’

Judge William Sullivan replied: ‘I think I did that yesterday, didn’t I?’

‘Yes,’ the prosecutor interjected.

Reddington doubled down: ‘You did it yesterday, you did it soft, you didn’t do it forcefully…’

Sullivan jumped in: ‘What do you want me to do, get a brass band?

‘I read the instruction as written. The fact that I perhaps didn’t give it my full inflection – I’m sorry about that. I’m not an actor.’

The judge continued to defend himself: ‘I am not glossing over this issue. Trust me, I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I’ll try to give it with more pizazz.’

Clancy’s parents, Mike and Paula Musgrove, and her sister, Allison Ozga, arrived at court together for day seven of verdict deliberations.

The jury entered the courtroom.

Judge Sullivan asked his usual questions: whether they had discussed the case and whether anything affected their ability to serve.

He then reminded the jury that they must follow the law as he gave it to them.

‘I wanted to remind you, as I instructed you earlier, it is your duty as jurors to accept the law as I gave it to you,’ Sullivan said.

‘You must follow the law as I give it to you, whether you agree with it or not.

‘With that, you may now resume your deliberations.’

Judge William Sullivan declined to pursue any additional inquiry about the holdout juror who refuses to follow the law about reasonable doubt.

‘In this case here, I see no showing of the need for an inquiry of this particular juror,’ he said.

‘The note we’re referring to, the one from late yesterday afternoon, indicates that the juror has acknowledged doubt but has refused to apply it to the verdict.’

Sullivan continued: ‘In reading that note carefully and strictly in the way that I have to before I possibly invade the province of the jury, that note does not indicate that this is a person who has refused to follow the law.

‘This is not a case that there is any indication that the juror has refused to deliberate or has any reason or indicated that they would not follow the law.’

Kevin Reddington claimed the holdout juror lied under oath.

‘Clearly judge, we have a person, who under their oath, stood in front of you yesterday when you did the individual voir dire, and according to this information, under oath, looked you in the eye and lied,’ he said.

‘That juror told you that he would be able to apply the law to the facts as you asked him, and based on this note from this juror, it clearly and unequivocally indicates that they are basically 11 to one, and this person will not apply reasonable doubt to the evidence to return a not guilty verdict.’

American juries are not allowed to return majority verdicts in criminal cases after the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the practice was unconstitutional.

Before 2020, Louisiana and Oregon allowed majority convictions in criminal trials.

As a result of case Ramos v Louisiana, judges ruled that the Sixth Amendment requires a unanimous jury verdict to convict a defendant of a serious crime.

If a jury cannot reach a unanimous agreement and returns hung, a mistrial is automatically declared.

Court kicked off the morning with the judge asking the attorneys how they wanted to respond to the foreperson’s note.

Prosecutor Sprague said the jury should return to deliberations.

‘What we have here is a note that indicates a disagreement,’ she said.

Lindsay Clancy is inside the courtroom for day seven of her verdict deliberations.

She sits at the defense table in a green blouse.

Her parents, Mike and Paula Musgrove; her sister, Allison Ozga; her nurse friend, Margaret Hamp; along with Dr Paul Zeizel and Reddington’s son, Patrick Reddington, all entered the courtroom.

A panel of 12 jurors is deliberating in a private room on whether they find Lindsay Clancy guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, or manslaughter.

The jury includes nine women and three men. The foreperson is a woman. They have not been sequestered for deliberations.

As of Friday morning, the group has deliberated for 36 hours without reaching a verdict.

On Thursday, the foreperson sent a note to Judge William Sullivan saying that one of the 12 was not following the law on reasonable doubt.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington filed a motion to have the juror removed and said the judge will question that person Friday morning.

Six alternate jurors have not participated in the deliberations but have sat through the entire trial.

The alternates consist of three men and three women.

Kevin Reddington arrived at court with his entourage wearing a pink tie.

Clancy’s attorney filed a motion Friday morning asking the judge to end sidebars in this trial and to handle all related proceedings in open court.

Lindsay Clancy was wheeled up to the judge’s bench by her attorney Kevin Reddington on Thursday.

They watched with the prosecution as the judge asked each juror, one by one, whether they could follow the law on reasonable doubt. All 12 were heard agreeing.

As he left court, Reddington explained the decision to bring her up to the bench.

‘I just want to make sure she’s there and understands what’s going on,’ he said.