Boston 25 Legal Analyst explains mistrial declaration in Lindsay Clancy trial

Judge leaving the courtroom there after declaring a mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial. Not what the defense wanted. I don't think that's what anybody necessarily in this case wanted, but it is what we have after the Supreme Judicial Court denied the request for a stay, a Hail Mary as we called it from Kevin Reddington to try to put a pin in this case after it was revealed that one juror apparently was a holdout. Walk us through a little about a little of what we saw there at the very end. Reddington made a request for a 25 B2. What is that? So essentially a 25 B or 25 B2 motion is asking the judge. It's usually after a verdict to ask the judge to reduce the verdict to a lower charge or a lesser included. We saw this in the Louise Woodward shaken baby case. That jury came back with a murder to conviction. The judge on his own to respond day. So without usually the prosecutor is the only one who can reduce a charge before trial. Judge reduces the verdict, reduced her verdict down to a manslaughter, gave her time served, and she's actually now a barrister in the UK right now. So the judge does have some discretion there to reduce a verdict or to reduce the charges or to order a new trial. Essentially we're on track now for a new trial. I think what Attorney Reddington is trying to accomplish is to re-argue essentially that the prosecutor didn't meet its burden for his motion for directed verdict or required finding of not guilty. So as we remember at the end of the Commonwealth's case, when they rested, there was a motion by the defense and they argued for the court, the judge basically to dismiss the case because the Commonwealth didn't meet their burden. It's a lower standard than beyond a reasonable doubt. And that in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, the jury could not have come to a verdict. And then there was another motion at the end of the trial after the defense rested. He wants to reopen that argument and say that the prosecution did not provide enough evidence to even get over the hurdle and therefore asking the judge to essentially direct out the case to a required not guilty.