. . . "Reddington hasn't asked to comb through the phone records of the 11 jurors who sided with his client. He wants the one holdout's texts, calls, and data, and nobody else's. If Sullivan grants that request, the message to future jurors is unmistakable. Vote the wrong way, and your private life becomes evidence."
"When a Massachusetts jury deadlocked in Lindsay Clancy's murder trial, her defense team went hunting for someone to blame, and it zeroed in on the one juror who refused to find her not guilty.
"Clancy’s lawyer argued that severe postpartum psychosis made her not guilty by reason of insanity for brutally murdering her three young children. Prosecutors told a different story. They pointed out how Clancy planned the killings in advance and even schemed to get her husband out of the house long enough to carry out the murders. One juror, Michael Desronvil, a hero in my book, refused to call that insanity. His vote deadlocked the jury, and Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial earlier this month.
"Now Clancy’s defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, wants Desronvil investigated. His motion asks Sullivan to look into whether Desronvil gave inaccurate answers during jury selection and claims he used his cellphone during deliberations. Reddington also wants the judge to order Desronvil's phone carrier to hand over call and text records for every day of deliberations. He also wants Desronvil forced to surrender his phone to a "neutral examiner" who would dig through its data.
"Think about the implications of this. A private citizen answers a jury summons, sits through a gut-wrenching trial about three dead children, votes his conscience, and his reward is not only being forced into hiding, but also having the defense lawyer demand access to his phone.
"Reddington's case leans heavily on fellow juror Nick Dargie, who told ABC News in an interview that Desronvil ignored the other panelists and scrolled on his phone during deliberations. However, according to Desronvil, he was hardly the only one looking at a screen." . . . More.
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