Trump weighs in on Lindsay Clancy murder trial dubbed 'kangaroo court' by GOP leaders

Eleven jurors looked at the evidence and agreed. One held out, and now a woman accused of killing her three children walks away with a mistrial while Massachusetts prosecutors decide whether they even want to try this again. That's the part of this story that should bother people far more than whatever Trump posted about it. A single holdout is allowed to hang a jury, that's how the system works, but when it happens in a case this horrific, in a state whose courts have a reputation for going soft in exactly this direction, "the system worked" starts to sound like something people say because they have to, not because they believe it.

Trump calling it a "kangaroo court" and vowing Clancy will "pay the price" is Trump being Trump. He says the loud version of what a lot of ordinary people are already thinking, which is that something about this outcome smells wrong. GOP leaders in Massachusetts using similar language isn't manufactured outrage. It's a reaction to watching a state judiciary that critics have accused for years of tilting toward defendants, especially in cases with any hint of mental health mitigation, do it again in the most extreme case imaginable.

None of this means Clancy is guilty before a jury actually convicts her, and it doesn't mean prosecutors should cut corners on retrial to satisfy public anger. But there's a difference between due process and a legal culture that seems allergic to accountability when the crime is this severe. Three children are dead. A mistrial isn't an acquittal, and it shouldn't be treated by anyone, including commentators trying to calm the public down, as the end of the conversation.

If Massachusetts prosecutors decline to retry this case, or slow-walk it into irrelevance, that will tell you everything about whether the criticism was overblown or exactly right.