Hung jury or eventual verdict? What comes next in the Lindsay Clancy trial

Joining us now to talk about this breaking development in the Lindsay Clancy trial, Boston criminal defense attorney Elyse Hirschhorn. Elyse, about 18 hours of deliberations here, they did come back once and ask the question, they came back now and said, you know, we're deadlocked here. The judge forced them to go back. What's your expectation going forward right now that the jury is deadlocked in this thing and is it surprising after so long that they said they can't come to a decision? Great questions and nice to see you this morning. So essentially, the first time that a jury says that they can't come to a decision or there can't come to a unanimous decision, that means that that's not going to be the end of it. That's not going to be the hung jury mistrial. And probably the jury is thinking, why are we being sent back again? But this is very common procedure during such a heavy case with so much evidence. We didn't hear anything from them yesterday. We sort of thought there's clearly something that they didn't agree on. But with regards to this, the judge is going to send them back likely another time, even if they come back and say they're deadlocked and go into a specific type of instruction that tells them to try to come to a unanimous verdict one more time. So obviously, we don't know what the deadlock problem is in the juries that one or two jurors holding out. Is there a majority of people who feel one way or the other? What's the likelihood? And you've seen in cases in the past when this has happened, that someone is going to change your mind, that they are going to come around. I mean, jurors tend to say, no, no, this is this is where I stand. So the odds of them actually coming to a verdict, does that change now that you know at this point they're deadlocked? It can happen. They're going to likely either come to a verdict or come back again and say we're deadlocked. The judge and the lawyers, we look for specific type of language like hopelessly deadlocked or we'll never agree. Something that's a little more finite. The jury's not told about the specific language, but essentially, as the process goes along, they're either going to come together or they're going to become further apart. And once they come back with further apart, there's something called a Tui Rodriguez instruction, essentially two or three pages that the judge encourages them to go back one more time, try to come to a verdict. And then if they come back after that deadlocked, he'll declare a mistrial. Based on your experience in dealing with with juries and what you've heard after the fact, what is likely going on in that jury room right now? This obviously it's not who did it. It's not when she did it. It's not how she did it. This comes down to whether Lindsay Clancy is criminally responsible. Now, there were experts that said she is. There were experts that said she is not. So they are trying to weigh. I wouldn't anticipate some jurors are crediting the prosecution's experts. Some jurors likely are putting more credit or weight to the defense experts. So are they going to meet in the middle? This is a very divisive case, very strong emotions and very, very sad facts. So certainly bringing out emotions in people. But the judge has told them that they need to put those aside. Hopefully they'll be able to do that. You said if they come back another time, the judge could still send them back and then really try to force them if it gets to the point where they just can't come to a verdict. And this is a hung jury or that, you know, there's no no verdict to be rendered here. What happens then with this case? The key really is that Tui Rodriguez instruction. It's a case law that basically tells them they have one more chance to do this. It's a much more involved instruction than just go back and try again. They come back after that. And there is a mistrial declared. Lindsey Clancy would go back to Tewksbury Hospital. She is technically being held for trial unless and until the district attorney, Tim Cruz, decides to either drop the charges or try this again. So he could do they could go do it again if they go through the same thing over again. So we'd be looking potentially at another trial. And they don't have to decide that day. Well, certainly a lot of developments happening. We'll see what happens going forward. I know at least you'll be hanging around and we'll discuss this as the day goes forward. I appreciate you having me.