{"id":22148,"date":"2026-10-02T12:22:34","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/?p=22148"},"modified":"2026-10-02T12:22:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:22:34","slug":"judge-makes-decision-in-lindsay-clancy-case-courtroom-erupts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/?p=22148","title":{"rendered":"Judge Makes Decision in Lindsay Clancy Case Courtroom Erupts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Judge Sullivan individually questioned all 12 jurors and asked whether they could follow his legal instructions. Reddington filed an emergency motion this morning asking Judge Sullivan to prohibit any further private sidebar discussions in the case. The one-page filing asked Sullivan for a standing order requiring that the trial and all related proceedings be conducted in open court, rather than through private conversations at sidebar. That\u2019s important because yesterday\u2019s extraordinary juror controversy largely unfolded through sidebars that the public and livestream audience could not hear.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Refuses to Remove Juror<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also an important distinction about the alleged 11-1 jury split. Reddington has suggested that he believes the 11 jurors favor Clancy, but the court has not officially disclosed the jury\u2019s actual votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jury Deliberations Continue Amid Controversy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday began as the sixth day of jury deliberations, following two previous declarations that the jury was deadlocked. By approximately 3 p.m., after roughly 35 hours of deliberations, another jury note arrived. Judge Sullivan brought court back into session and proceeded to question all 12 jurors individually under oath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The questioning occurred at the sidebar, meaning viewers watching the livestream couldn\u2019t hear the questions or answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clancy was brought to the sidebar in her wheelchair while the jurors were questioned. ABC reported that prosecutors and defense attorneys were visibly disagreeing about what was happening. After questioning the jurors individually, Sullivan brought the entire jury back and delivered another instruction concerning reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, Sullivan was unwilling to remove someone simply\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sullivan told them: \u201cYou are required to follow my instructions on the law as I gave them.\u201d He reminded them that every defendant is presumed innocent and that prosecutors bear the burden of proving guilt. Sullivan told jurors, \u201cI\u2019ve told you that every person is presumed to be innocent until they are proved guilty and that the burden of proof is on the prosecutor.\u201d The jury was then sent back to deliberate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the jury left the courtroom, Reddington said the foreperson\u2019s note indicated one juror was refusing to follow Sullivan\u2019s legal instructions. Reddington demanded that Sullivan remove that juror and replace the person with an alternate. His argument was essentially that this wasn\u2019t simply a juror who viewed the evidence differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Reddington , the juror \u201crefuses to listen to the law.\u201d Reddington told Judge Sullivan, \u201cMy motion is to remove this juror that refuses to listen to your instruction on reasonable doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague strongly disagreed. Her position was that the court couldn\u2019t determine from the note which juror\u2019s interpretation was correct without improperly intruding into confidential jury deliberations. Sprague said: \u201cThere\u2019s no way to determine what the deliberations are, who\u2019s correct, who\u2019s incorrect, and nor should we attempt to.\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t feel that it is proper for me to side with one side or the other of the deliberations. I don\u2019t feel it\u2019s appropriate for me to say, I agree with one juror or the 11.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, Sullivan was unwilling to remove someone simply because that juror appeared to be outnumbered 11-1. This article may contain commentary which reflects the author\u2019s opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judge Sullivan individually questioned all 12 jurors and asked whether they could follow his legal instructions. Reddington filed an emergency motion this morning asking Judge Sullivan to prohibit any further private sidebar discussions in the case. The one-page filing asked Sullivan for a standing order requiring that the trial and all related proceedings be conducted …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22150,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22148\/revisions\/22150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}