Lindsay Clancy's lawyer wants probe into holdout juror’s cellphone use

Lindsay Clancy’s attorney wants a Massachusetts judge to investigate the holdout juror whose guilty vote led to a mistrial in the defendant’s controversial murder case.

That juror’s cellphone data usage during deliberations has raised concerns for defense lawyer Kevin Reddington, according to People.

Michael P. Desronvil told NewsNation that he was the lone dissenter who didn’t believe Clancy’s psychiatric state when she killed her three young children in 2023 exempts her from criminal liability. He said his verdict was based on the evidence presented.

The defendant is being detained in a mental hospital while prosecutors weigh what’s next for the 36-year-old suspect. Her initial trial ended on Sept. 4 following nearly five weeks of testimony. Juror Nick Dargie told ABC News that the holdout at times scrolled on his phone and refused to engage with the other jurors during deliberations. He said that Desronvil, whom Dargie didn’t identify by name, offered no reason for his resistance.

—New York Daily News

Carnegie Mellon moves to limit speech as controversial posts test limits of academic freedom

Carnegie Mellon University leadership has promised “swift action” against a professor whose controversial posts invoking death, race and her CMU colleagues sparked a social media storm and calls for her termination.

The announcement earlier this week came a few days after CMU started an interim policy that would prohibit some speech on The Fence, a century-old campus landmark that has long stood as a beacon of free expression and become a point of controversy in recent years. The public announcements of action on free speech issues on campus came as universities around the country face similar challenges to policies of tolerance for controversial words.

In the case of Uju Anya — a tenured Nigerian-American professor who has worked at the university since 2021 — the university hasn’t detailed what “swift action” might be. But if that involves disciplinary moves against her, CMU leaders will bear the burden to prove Anya’s speech violates school policy and isn’t shielded by stringent academic freedom protections.

Anya, a language professor who is currently on voluntary professional leave and isn’t teaching courses this academic year, has long drawn scrutiny for her posts on X.

—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Flock cameras watch South Carolina. But do they actually help solve crime? What study says

A new study from researchers at the University of South Carolina could be the first to show a link between crime reduction and the spread of Flock license-plate reading cameras.

The study by USC professors Ian Adams and Scott Mourtgos shows that, at least when looking specifically at motor vehicle thefts, cities that adopt Flock Safety cameras have an 11% drop in vehicle thefts in the year following the cameras’ introduction.

“If it’s true that this technology is having an effect on crime, then it would be biggest on motor vehicle thefts, because that’s closest to what the technology is processing,” Adams said in an interview with The State.

“It’s a crime that is widespread as compared to more serious crimes, and it is historically one of the least solved crimes. They don’t often find the people responsible. Less than 18% of motor vehicle theft cases are solved, so it’s a very low ‘solved’ rate.”

—The State

Merz says he has backing to stay on as Germany’s chancellor

Chancellor Friedrich Merz reinforced his message that he’ll see through his reform agenda as Germany’s leader after his Christian Democratic Union crashed out of a regional parliament for the first time in the country’s post-World War II history.

The election debacle in the Baltic coast state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania — where the CDU took less than 5% of the vote on Sunday — caps a month of losses at the hands of the far-right Alternative for Germany. The setbacks have stoked calls within the conservative party for Merz to step aside.

Merz said he secured his party’s backing to stay on after he gathered the CDU’s leadership in Berlin to gauge his position. He also extended an offer to the Social Democrats to continue their 16-month coalition as it seeks to implement an overhaul of Germany’s pension, health and tax systems.

“We want to move the reform process forward, but we want to offer answers for people and their concerns,” Merz told reporters on Monday, adding that his party will weigh the consequences of the defeats “for a long time.” No members brought up a change in leadership in the closed-door gathering, he said.

—Bloomberg News