Catholic faith of lone juror holdout in Lindsay Clancy case draws attention after mistrial

The lone holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial belongs to a devout Haitian Catholic family and based his decision on the case’s evidence, according to his brother, who spoke out as the family faced intense scrutiny following the mistrial.

“He looked at the case, and he made the call,” the brother told the New York Post in an interview published Sept. 15. “For me, that’s how I would do it. I would just listen to the case with all the evidence, and go from there.”

“I don’t think religion had anything to do with it,” he said, disputing claims circulating online about his brother’s reasoning. 

He added that his brother’s choice “was good for some people, but not good for other people.”

The juror’s Catholic background became the subject of online speculation after he cast the lone vote against finding Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity in the killings of her three young children, the Post reported. Eleven other jurors favored that verdict, according to jurors who spoke publicly after the trial. 

>> Judge declares mistrial in Lindsay Clancy case after jury deadlocks <<

Some observers praised the holdout for his decision, while others criticized his vote and scrutinized his personal history. His brother said the resulting attention had upended his family’s life. 

“My family cannot leave the house,” he told the Post, saying reporters and critics had hounded the family for days. 

“They are leaving notes at my mother’s house,” he said. “They won’t leave us alone, and we don’t know anything.”

Clancy’s defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, criticized the holdout after the mistrial was declared, telling reporters outside the courthouse that the juror “stole seven weeks of life of these other jurors that were so attentive,” AP News reported at the time. Reddington alleged the one juror “refused to listen” to the judge’s instructions on reasonable doubt and had acknowledged having doubt but was unwilling to apply it.

Religion surfaced during the trial when prosecution expert Dr. Kirk Heilbrun discussed Clancy’s Catholic background and began recounting a conversation in which he asked whether she understood that suicide constituted a mortal sin. 

Reddington immediately objected and unsuccessfully sought a mistrial, arguing that the testimony was inflammatory. Judge William Sullivan instructed jurors to disregard the religious reference. According to Heilbrun, Clancy told him that she said, “Go to God, baby,” while killing her children and believed that she would be with them in Heaven. 

Sullivan declared a mistrial Sept. 4 after jurors reported that they could not reach a unanimous verdict following 38 hours of deliberations over seven days, as Zeale News reported.

Clancy, 36, admitted to strangling her three children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan — with exercise bands in the basement of the family’s Duxbury home in January 2023. She then attempted suicide by jumping from a second-story window, leaving her paralyzed. 

As Zeale News previously reported, Clancy’s defense attorneys argued that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time and could not understand the wrongfulness of her actions. Prosecutors, however, maintained that she planned the killings, knew right from wrong, and was criminally responsible. 

The intense scrutiny also drew attention to allegations from the juror’s past. The Post reported that police arrested him following an alleged domestic assault in 2021, although prosecutors later dismissed the charges. A teenage relative obtained a restraining order against him following a separate alleged altercation in 2025, according to the outlet. The order reportedly remained active when jury selection began and expired during the trial.

Sullivan has since ordered the jurors’ identities to remain sealed, citing a “real and present risk” to their safety following threats and attempts to expose their personal information.

Prosecutors have not announced whether they will retry Clancy. The case is scheduled to return to court Sept. 29.