Lindsay Clancy's lawyers asked a judge to question the holdout juror about his alleged use of a cellphone during deliberations and his answers on a questionnaire.
Page A2From§Eachthe midnight edition — 22 September 2026
Defense makes five attempts to remove one juror, files zero evidence against him
As it ran on the front
On September 3rd, Lindsay Clancy's defense attorney asked a Massachusetts judge to dismiss the lone holdout juror in her murder trial — the man he said "refuses to listen" to the rule on reasonable doubt. The same day, the foreperson sent a note saying the holdout wasn't following that instruction. The attorney read the note as something bigger: a single juror standing between the case and a unanimous verdict.
The next day, the defense tried the judge again — this time asking for a private hearing with the holdout. The judge told attorneys he would not have one, in what The Hill called a heated exchange. Within hours, Clancy's team had gone over his head, asking the Massachusetts high court to force him to question the juror, or remove him, whichever came first.…
…(cont) By September 9th, the defense had a new problem to manage: a handful of the jurors voting to acquit had gone on NBC 10 and described using their own experience to talk the holdout out of his position — the outside expertise the jury instructions forbid. A count of jurors admitting they broke that rule stood at a handful. A count of findings that the holdout had broken any rule stood at zero.
The following day, the attorney tried a fourth door: a motion asking the judge to skip the jury altogether and find Clancy not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility. A mistrial had already been declared. The motion asked the court to end the case without a verdict at all.
On September 18th, the holdout — Michael Desronvil — was taken to a secure location, his own attorney announced, after details of the deliberations went public. He had not been dismissed. He had been moved.
And this week, door number five: the defense wants the judge to question Desronvil about a phone he allegedly used during deliberations, and to pull his phone records. Maybe he used it. The count of findings that say so is still zero.
Five approaches, one man, the same arithmetic running under all of them: dismiss him, request a private hearing, appeal past the judge who wouldn't grant it, move to acquit around him, then go through his phone. Whatever a Massachusetts court eventually decides about Michael Desronvil, the record will show it took five separate motions to chase a single unproven allegation.
That's the whole story. Everything else is procedure dressed up as suspicion, waiting for one fact to catch up to it.
“You don't file five motions against one guy because you think he's dirty — you file five because the first four came back empty and somebody's still paying the hourly rate. Dismiss him, appeal past the judge, acquit around him, and when none of that works, go through his phone — that's not a search for misconduct, that's a search for a reason, any reason. The scary part isn't the holdout. It's how much machinery you can point at one man before anybody asks where the evidence went.”
“Look, a juror allegedly on his phone during deliberations in a triple-murder trial — you're going to sit there and tell me that's not worth checking? The defense has an obligation to protect the integrity of the verdict, that's just — that's Law 101. Five requests, sure, but each one's about a different concern, it's not like it's the same — okay, it's the same guy, every time, fine. Did I say "same guy every time"? That's not the point I was making.”
The receipts
Lindsay Clancy's defense attorney is now asking the judge at her murder trial to question the holdout juror and review his phone records. Shanelle Kaul has more on that and an unseen part of the 60 Minutes Patrick Clancy interview.
The holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial has been taken to a “secure location,” his attorney announced Thursday, after other members of the jury in the high-profile case alleged the lone juror had doubts the mother of three was sane when killing her children. Michael Desronvil was the holdout juror in the Massachusetts […]
· Clancy Juror Appears To Admit Jurors Used Outside Expertise To Badger Holdout from the morgue, 9 Sep 2026
· Single holdout juror preventing unanimous verdict in Lindsay Clancy trial, defense claims from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
· Lindsay Clancy judge, defense attorney spar over holdout juror from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Clancy defense asks judge to dismiss holdout juror who ‘refuses to listen’ from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
· Lindsay Clancy attorney asks judge to acquit client and end murder case from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
· Lindsay Clancy wants appeal court to force trial judge to boot holdout juror or question him from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.