Throwing papers, hurling a ninja star - Lindsay Clancy lawyer creates courtroom spectacles

Throwing papers and hurling a ninja star - Lindsay Clancy lawyer stages courtroom drama

From a gentle protector to someone throwing papers in frustration at the murder trial of US mother Lindsay Clancy, defence lawyer Kevin Reddington has been a striking presence throughout the proceedings.

He has held her hand, rubbed her shoulder, and gently guided her across the courtroom in her wheelchair.

He has stood before the jury, arguing with calm conviction that Clancy, 36, was a mother who needed help, not a calculated killer who coldly murdered her three children.

Reddington has softly called her "this young lady" and, with his voice rising during closing arguments, declared: "This is a prosecution that has ripped the soul out of this girl".

For global audiences captivated by the courtroom broadcast, such theatrics are nothing new for those who have followed Reddington's career.

Reddington first drew national attention in 1989, when he won freedom for Therese Rogers, a woman accused of killing her boyfriend after stabbing his eyes out, the Cape Cod Times reported. (She did so with a butcher's knife, the court would learn, while the boyfriend slept.)

Reddington threw a pair of ninja stars across the courtroom to show how lethal they were. The scars in the wall were still there decades later.

He used an insanity defence, the Times noted, telling the jury that Rogers had endured years of abuse from her boyfriend and developed Battered Woman Syndrome, which led to a temporary bout of insanity when she killed him.

His successful use of that insanity argument was the first of its kind, according to the New York Times.

He used a similar argument in another case in 2007, when another woman was accused of killing her husband with a single gunshot to the chest, according to local news outlet The Enterprise.

Reddington presented such strong evidence that the woman had been abused that a grand jury did not even return an indictment against her. In the US, such panels are convened by prosecutors to hear evidence and decide whether there is enough to justify criminal charges.

It was an incredible feat, Boston-based lawyer Rosemary Scapicchio told The Enterprise. She pointed to a humorous saying in the US legal community - that the bar for evidence is so low for grand juries to issue indictments, they would indict "a ham sandwich".

Reddington's fame rose again around 2011, when he defended Catherine Greig, the girlfriend of notorious mob boss James Whitey Bulger - played by Johnny Depp in the movie Black Mass.

She received a plea deal after harbouring one of the FBI's then-Ten Most Wanted fugitives for years.

Now, with the world watching to learn Clancy's fate, all eyes are on Reddington once more.

On Friday, the court saw his emotions flare during a heated exchange with the judge, as he pleaded with the judge not to declare a mistrial.

A day earlier, he had raised his voice, slammed a stack of papers, then sat visibly agitated, adjusting his coffee mug after the judge refused to remove a juror at Reddington's request.

Reddington appeared to be on the brink of another high-profile acquittal and said the lone holdout was not applying the law correctly, blocking a unanimous verdict as required.

On Friday, he persuaded the judge to allow a one-hour delay before declaring a mistrial, which would require the entire case to be retried.

"If we come back here in a half an hour with a mistrial because of a juror that has just spurned the instructions of this court", Reddington said, "it's a shame. It's a real shame".

The judge first refused, at one point saying "I'm not an actor", but then agreed to Reddington's request, allowing him to appeal to the highest court in Massachusetts.