Lindsay Clancy trial holdout juror defends vote
The mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy case has prompted holdout juror Michael P. Desronvil to defend his position in a public statement. Criminal defense attorney Mercedes Colwin explains Desronvil’s reasoning and examines what prosecutors in Massachusetts could do next, including pursuing a retrial or negotiating a plea deal as the closely watched case continues.
Lindsay Clancy’s defense team is seeking an investigation into the juror who pushed to convict her of murdering her children by strangulation. The defense has also argued that Desronvil’s refusal to yield to pressure from other jurors should lead a judge to dismiss the charges, a position that drew a forceful response from Desronvil’s attorney.
“The ‘Looney Tunes’ motion filed yesterday by Kevin ‘Shooter McGavin’ Reddington to investigate Michael is not just an attack on Michael for being the courageous lone holdout juror,” attorney Edward Paltzik wrote on X Tuesday morning, referring to Desronvil.
“Reddington’s motion is actually a full-frontal attack on the U.S. Constitution,” Paltzik wrote. “Because if the new normal is that jurors are going to face brutal reprisals for disagreeing with a defense attorney, you can kiss the Sixth Amendment goodbye.”
Michael P. Desronvil, the lone holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial, which ended in a mistrial. (Fugitive TV)
Paltzik warned that granting the defense’s request to investigate his client could have lasting consequences for the American criminal justice system.
“If we follow his destructive proposal to its logical conclusion, we’re going to have an endless cycle of prosecutors investigating holdouts who oppose ‘guilty’ and defense attorneys investigating holdouts who oppose ‘not guilty,’” he wrote. “Pretty soon we’ll end up with… a retrograde justice system that will look a lot like the Hatfield-McCoy Feud: a cycle of carnage so malignant that its origins will fade in importance, replaced by the hopeless death spiral of the cycle itself.”
In a motion filed Friday, Reddington requested a “limited inquiry” into Desronvil, seeking information about his background and any potential criminal history, along with phone records, courthouse surveillance footage and other records.
Lindsay Clancy looks at jurors as Judge Sullivan asks them to start deliberations for a sixth day. The Lindsay Clancy jury resumes deliberations for a sixth day on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026. ( )
Paltzik and Reddington did not immediately respond to requests for comment from News Media on Tuesday morning.
In a separate filing, Clancy attorney Martin Weinberg argued that Judge William Sullivan’s decision to overrule a defense objection during the trial should justify dismissing the charges against the 36-year-old defendant on double jeopardy grounds. That motion also focused on Desronvil and allegations that he failed to follow the judge’s instructions and apply the law.
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Callan, left, Dawson and Cora Clancy. The three children were killed at their Duxbury, Massachusetts, home in January 2023. (Lindsay Marie Clancy/Facebook)
“The jury twice informed the Court that one of its members was refusing to apply the Court’s instructions regarding the fundamental concept of reasonable doubt,” Weinberg wrote. “After the first such report, the Court asked each juror individually whether he or she was able to apply the law. Upon receiving the second report, the Court tempered its response even further, simply reminding all jurors as a group of their obligation to follow its instructions generally. The Court denied Ms. Clancy’s explicit requests to go further.”
Kevin J. Reddington addresses the media outside of Plymouth Superior Court, Plymouth, Mass., on Thursday, September 3, 2026. His client, Lindsay Clancy, is on trial for the murder of her three children in 2023. (David McGlynn for News Media)
Weinberg’s filing contended that Sullivan acted improperly by declaring a mistrial before investigating the holdout juror. It cited the jury foreperson’s allegation that Desronvil made “statements acknowledging doubt but refus[ing] to apply it to the verdict as the law states.”
Paltzik said he began representing Desronvil last week, as the juror faced increasing public scrutiny from fellow jurors, Clancy’s defense team and her supporters.
Patrick Clancy exits Plymouth Superior Court, Plymouth, Mass., on Monday, July 27, 2026. His ex-wife, Lindsay Clancy, is on trial for the murder of their three children. (David McGlynn for News Media)
Several jurors have spoken publicly since Clancy’s mistrial was declared on Sept. 4. Some, including the foreperson, accused Desronvil of disregarding doubts about the prosecution’s case. Desronvil denied that accusation in his only public comments.
“I didn’t have any doubts,” he said in a statement first reported by NewsNation last week. “As I tried to explain different possible theories during deliberation, I kept getting cut off as if I had doubts based on the evidence present.”
Paula Devlin speaks with News Media about the Lindsay Clancy trial, Whitman, Massachusetts, Monday, September 14, 2026. Devlin was a juror in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for News Media))
He said that based on the physical evidence, witness testimony and the prosecution’s presentations, he “thought it was enough proof that she knew exactly what she was doing and planned.”
Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, admitted killing her children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — but argued she was not criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings. Prosecutors argued she planned the murders and understood that what she was doing was wrong.
Clancy is due back in court Sept. 29.