As the Lindsay Clancy jury remains deadlocked after days of deliberations, attention has increasingly turned to the judge overseeing one of Massachusetts' most closely watched murder trials. Sullivan has presided over the case from the Plymouth County Superior Court bench, ruling on evidence, objections and legal arguments while overseeing a trial centered on one of the most difficult questions in criminal law: whether a mother who killed her three children should be held criminally responsible when she says she was experiencing severe psychosis. Now, with jurors having twice told Sullivan they cannot reach a unanimous verdict, the judge is at the center of the next critical stage of the case.
On Wednesday, Sullivan issued a Tuey-Rodriguez instruction—sometimes called a “dynamite charge”—urging jurors to continue discussing their differences and reconsider their positions while not abandoning their honest convictions. The jury was sent back to deliberate again and is due to return Thursday. If jurors remain deadlocked, Sullivan could ultimately declare a mistrial.
But Sullivan's connection to the issues in Clancy's case goes back well before he took the bench. Sullivan is a Massachusetts native who began his legal career as an assistant district attorney in Norfolk County from 1982 to 1984 before moving into private practice. He later became known as a prominent criminal defense attorney, handling hundreds of Superior Court cases.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick appointed Sullivan to the Massachusetts Superior Court in 2014. At the time of his appointment, Sullivan was a partner at Sullivan & Sweeney LLP in Quincy and had built a reputation as a leading criminal defense lawyer.
His education included an undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and a law degree from Boston College Law School. Before becoming a judge, however, Sullivan personally handled a case involving a mental-health defense that bears striking similarities to the arguments now being presented in the Clancy trial. In 2013, Sullivan represented Nathaniel Fujita, a 20-year-old Massachusetts man accused of killing his former high school girlfriend, Lauren Astley.
Fujita did not dispute that he killed Astley. Instead, Sullivan argued that his client had experienced a psychotic episode and should not be held responsible for the killing. In his closing argument, Sullivan told jurors that the case involved a question of mental illness and criminal responsibility.
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