Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) accused legacy media Friday of launching a smear operation against the lone holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial and offered the Massachusetts man sanctuary in the Sunshine State should he be harassed.
The governor cited a report by an NBC affiliate saying that the black juror had a history of alleged domestic violence and an active restraining order against him with a court.
“A man objected to allowing a woman to kill her three young kids and get away with it, so NBC is trying to smear that juror, whose identity should be protected,” DeSantis posted on X. “Another low for legacy media.”
DeSantis included the blurb from NBC10 Boston on X. It promoted and provided a link to the “full investigation” — as the the outlet named it — of the holdout juror.
The governor said the juror was welcome in Florida.
“If the juror is being harassed, Florida will provide asylum — I’m sure he’d be welcomed and appreciated,” DeSantis wrote.
NBC10 Boston reported Friday that the juror faced a criminal charge in 2021 for allegedly assaulting his then-wife. Citing a police report, the affiliate reported his 13-year-old nephew told police he saw the man grab her by the throat and throw her into the dresser.
The charge was later dismissed, and the couple divorced.
“Last year, that same teenage nephew referenced in the 2021 incident took out a restraining order after he said the juror pushed him to the ground and repeatedly punched him in the face,” the outlet reported.
The order apparently was still active when the man was selected as a juror for the high-profile televised Clancy trial.
According to the Hill:
The findings raised questions about how the man was selected for the jury. Massachusetts’ standard juror questionnaire asks prospective jurors whether they have been arrested, charged with a crime or served with a court order.
NBC10 reported that each question would have applied to the juror, though his questionnaire is not public and it is unknown how he answered.
“I don’t see how they would’ve allowed him to be a member of this jury,” the station’s chief legal analyst Michael Coyne told viewers.
The Boston television station delivered more troubling alleged findings.
It said that the juror was facing eviction for failing to pay rent since March and that his landlord had secured a $12,000 judgment for unpaid rent — while the man was deliberating on the jury.
It wasn’t the only news made this week in connection with the holdout. As Breitbart News reported Friday, NBC morning host Gayle King was taken aback when it was revealed that the holdout juror is a black man. “Whoa,” King said, “I’ll have to sit with that for a second.”
The juror was the lone holdout after the panel split 11-1 on whether to find Clancy not criminally responsible because of insanity or convict her of any one of several homicide charges for strangling her children with exercise bands before she attempted suicide.
Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial last week after seven days of deliberations.
Clancy was charged with killing Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months, at the family’s Duxbury, Massachusetts, home in 2023.
Her defense argued she was experiencing postpartum psychosis and was on a host of psychotropic prescription drugs ordered by doctors and not criminally responsible at the time of the murders.
Breitbart contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
