The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has received an emergency appeal filed by Lindsay Clancy’s legal team, according to CBS, the BBC’s US partner.
Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington hopes the high court will intervene and halt plans by judge William Sullivan to declare a mistrial after the jury said for the third time this week it has not reached a unanimous decision.
If the Supreme Judicial Court does not intervene, a mistrial will be declared. If the court does choose to step in, it’s unclear what would unfold next.
Trials are expensive and traumatic. A mistrial isn’t good for the defense unless there’s specific mistakes they think they can correct or there’s a hostile judge or whatever.
They want a beneficial verdict, not to drag a sensationalized case out.
In theory, anyways. In practice that might just be something the defense attorney is saying because you can’t admit “we’re hoping the prosecutor stops being a glory seeking dick about it now that they know a conviction won’t be easy and offers a better plea deal”