Massachusetts jury deadlocks three times on Lindsay Clancy; congressman, president reach verdict anyway.

…(cont) They went back in a third time. Deadlocked again. The judge declared a mistrial. That's the record, in order: two stalemates, one dynamite charge, a third deadlock, no verdict.

Now walk me through the other half of it, because I keep losing the thread here. The same day the mistrial came down — September 5th — a sitting congressman from Texas went on Fox and said, quote, I don't have an ounce of sympathy for Lindsay Clancy. The same day, the President said she was going to pay the price. And in the coverage of that same segment, Republican leaders — that's the word the story uses, leaders, plural, I'm not putting a name on a quote that didn't come with one — are on record calling the trial itself a kangaroo court.

So here's the walk-through I can't finish without help. Twelve residents of Massachusetts sat in a room for five days, got sent back to deliberate twice, and told the judge on a third occasion they still could not agree. That's the documented outcome, filed under mistrial. On the same calendar day, a member of Congress and the President of the United States each arrived at a conclusion the jury itself did not reach. Walk me through the step where that happens. I have the page that says undecided. I have the page that says no sympathy. I'm asking where the two connect, because I've gone through both twice and I can't find it.

I tried to build this one out of the usual parts — the car, the garage, something with a belt or a hose I could point to — and it wouldn't hold. A hung jury isn't a stuck lock. There's no part with a name on it you can replace and say, there, that was the failure. Twelve people didn't get there. Three separate times, on the record. That's the whole demonstration, and I don't have a better one to offer you.

The prosecutor, Timothy Cruz, now has to decide whether to retry the case, downgrade the charges, or drop it — the Times had that part Friday too. He hasn't said which yet. As far as I can tell, going back through everything filed on this in the last week, he's the only person in the story on record saying he isn't sure.

Oh — one more thing, before I let you go. The congressman who says he has no sympathy, and the president who says she'll pay a price — neither one sat in that room for the five days. The jury did. And the jury is the one still not sure. Walk me through how the two of them got someplace the twelve people in the room didn't. I'll wait.