photo #9388878

When November comes and you're comfortable on the couch telling yourself one vote won't make a difference, think back to the Lindsay Clancy trial.People tell themselves that every election. One vote more. One vote less. It feels small. It is not.On September 4 a Massachusetts jury deadlocked 11 to 1 in Plymouth Superior Court. Lindsay Clancy had strangled her three children in their Duxbury home on January 24, 2023. Cora was 5. Dawson was 3. Callan was 8 months old. She sent her husband out for takeout and killed them in the basement.Eleven jurors were ready to say she was not criminally responsible. One juror would not.The defense wanted the room to treat the strangling of three children in cold blood as a tragedy with no crime attached. Eleven went that way. One did not.Because he held out, Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial. She was not exonerated.Her children were not given justice that day. At least there is still an opportunity for it. Prosecutors can try her again. A hearing is set for September 29. That door is open because one man in that box refused to go along.That is what one vote did.November 3 is coming. Midterms get decided by people who get off the couch and people who stay put. A Republic is not protected by the voters who meant to go later.If one juror can keep a mother who murdered three children from walking free, your vote is not a gesture. It is the same kind of stand.The law only works when somebody in the room refuses to fold. Elections work the same way. Equal application of the law starts with people who show up.