Kevin Reddington Should Be Disbarred

Ask any trial judge and they’ll tell you it’s tough getting people to serve on juries. Many - most, in places like Norfolk, don’t bother answering their jury summons. Many of the ones that do come up with phony reasons why they cannot serve.

Guess what? It’s about to get a lot harder to convince people to become jurors.

Seriously, who would want to risk the public humiliation that one Massachusetts juror had to endure last week, thanks to a post-trial tirade by the defense lawyer?

We’re talking about the Lindsay Clancy murder trial, of course.

Defense Attorney Kevin Reddington first singled out one juror for attack in the courtroom after the jury foreman informed the court that the jury was hopelessly deadlocked with one member holding out for conviction in the baby-killer case.

Just one sane member out of 12. Think about that for a moment.

The red-faced defense lawyer demanded that the judge remove the recalcitrant juror.

The judge refused.

During his arguments, Reddington revealed that the juror was a man, which verged on identifying the individual since there were only three males on the jury. Finally, he insinuated that the juror had perjured himself during questioning before the trial.

Reprehensible.

Apparently, in Reddington’s mind, the only criminal in the courtroom was the man who was holding out for a conviction, not the woman who had strangled her own children.

The 75-year-old criminal defense lawyer seems to have forgotten that jurors are ordinary people, doing their civic duty and rendering a verdict that they believe is fair based on the law and the evidence.

Jurors don’t have to agree. Mistrials are fairly common when jurors can’t come to a unanimous decision.


In a hasty appeal to a higher court to pause the mistrial, Reddington made the ludicrous claim that the juror might be biased against disabled people, like his client.

Someone needs to tell this reckless, desperate attorney that there’s a difference between zealous defense of a client and defaming a juror whose conscience would not allow him to vote for a not guilty verdict.

Reddington crossed that line many times on Thursday and Friday and ought to be disciplined for it.

In fact, he ought to be disbarred.

It took a lot of courage for one juror out of 12 to stay true to his convictions. No doubt the other 11 were bullying and badgering him into changing his mind for six long days.

Outside of the courthouse Reddington kept up his nasty attack, saying the lone holdout had “robbed” the other jurors of seven weeks.

“I hope that guy can sleep well at night,” he spat.

One thing’s certain: That juror sleeps better than the three kids Lindsay Clancy strangled.