I've never had the pleasure of serving on a jury. I've been summoned three times in my life. The first time, the jury was filled before I had a chance to be interviewed. The other two times, I never even set foot in a courtroom. I can’t even remember when the last time I was summoned, but it’s been at least 15 years since my last summons.
Most people treat jury duty as if it were a major inconvenience, something to dread. But I've always wanted to experience it. And no, it’s not because I'm dreaming of some 12 Angry Men showdown, but because I think it would be a genuinely enlightening experience.
But now, after seeing what’s happening to the holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy trial, I'm not so sure I want any part of it.
Clancy murdered her three children, and there is no question about that. Her defense was that she is not criminally responsible because of postpartum psychosis. Eleven jurors accepted that argument, but one did not, and the case ended in a mistrial. The single juror who dissented, a black man, is now the target of an organized campaign aimed at exposing him for having refused to follow the majority. One of the jurors stated that the lone holdout “found it hardest to overcome the idea that Lindsay viciously killed her children,” as if it were a flaw in his character, when in fact, it’s just a true account of what actually occurred.
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As PJ Media's Sarah Anderson reported, that holdout juror is now the target of a media crusade to shame and out him. NBC10 Boston is reporting that it had "repeatedly attempted to contact the juror at home," where, as the outlet seemed eager to mention, his landlord is currently trying to evict him, and where he had previously faced allegations of domestic violence. NBC10 said it withheld his name because the jury list is impounded and because he chose not to speak publicly, and then proceeded to detail exactly the kind of personal information that would let anyone with an internet connection track him down anyway.
Now they want to bury him https://t.co/tVAk8282nJ
— John DePetro Show (@JohnDePetroshow) September 11, 2026
Think about what this actually teaches the next person who gets a jury summons. If you don’t vote the way the mob wants, the mob will find your address, and do everything possible to ruin your life.
I want to serve on a jury one day, and I still think that it would be an enlightening experience. But watching a man being publicly punished for refusing to allow a woman to not be held criminally responsible when she killed her three children makes me question whether many of the future jurors will just go with the crowd rather than run the risk of becoming the next public example. It’s a scary thought.
Our legal system depends on 12 strangers willing to follow the evidence wherever it leads, even when all the other people in the room want them to look away. If this is the price of doing that, don't be surprised when nobody's willing to pay it.
