The lone holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy trial was accused of domestic violence, has a restraining order filed against him, and is months behind on paying his rent, NBC Boston reported on Friday. This history suggests he may have lied on his juror questionnaire, the local news station noted. After NBC Boston ran its story, a blogger found and exposed the holdout’s full name, photo, and address. “Now that the holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy case is getting the negative attention he deserves, it’s easy for [Plymouth County, Massachusetts] District Attorney Tim Cruz to agree to a plea deal that gets Lindsay the help she needs,” argued a lawyer in the Boston Herald.
But in effectively revealing the juror’s identity, NBC Boston broke with established journalistic norms and made him a target. “My family cannot leave the house,” the holdout’s brother said. “They are leaving notes at my mother’s house.” Reporters usually only investigate jurors’ backgrounds after they have come forward publicly. For example, when reporters revealed that a juror in the Derek Chauvin trial had participated in a political protest wearing a “Black Lives Matter” T-shirt and baseball cap, they did so after the juror had identified himself and given a TV interview. The Clancy holdout, in contrast, had not given interviews, and his name is still legally sealed by the court.
