Jurors in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy have informed the court they remain deadlocked, saying they have been unable to reach a verdict after roughly 18 hours of deliberations.
Clancy, 36, is accused of killing her three young children — five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan — inside the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in 2023.
On Tuesday morning, the 12-person jury, made up of nine women and three men, sent word to Judge William Sullivan that they could not come to a unanimous decision.
Reading the message aloud in court, Sullivan said: “Members of the jury I’ve got your question and the question is, ‘After many hours of deliberation we are unable to come to a unanimous decision.’”
The judge noted the considerable time and attention already given to the trial, but instructed the jurors to return to the deliberation room and keep working toward a verdict.
If the impasse cannot be resolved, Sullivan could ultimately be left with no choice but to declare a mistrial in the high-profile Massachusetts case.
The jury, which has not been sequestered during deliberations, must weigh the charges and determine whether Clancy is guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter.
At this stage, jurors have indicated they are split over whether Clancy should be found not criminally responsible — a finding commonly described as not guilty by reason of insanity.
If a mistrial is called, the prosecution will have the opportunity to try Clancy again and the trial will start over from jury selection.
Lindsay Clancy, 36, is on trial for the murders of her three children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan
On Tuesday morning, the panel of 12 jurors – nine women and three men – told Judge William Sullivan that they cannot reach a unanimous decision
While it is unclear if the prosecution will move forward with a second trial and on what charges, it is likely they have prepared to file court documents to keep her institutionalized in the interim.
‘There is going to be some type of hospitalization to assess her current mental health and her current demeanor,’ Attorney Heather Cucolo, a New York Law School professor, told The Patriot Ledger.
A second trial would not violate any double jeopardy laws because no verdict was formally reached.
A retrial would force Patrick Clancy to testify again, and would create the opportunity from both the defense and the prosecution to call new witnesses to the stand.
Clancy would also likely have to sit through the same evidence that caused her to frequently break down during her initial trial, as well as brace for new gruesome evidence.
She admitted to killing her children but pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity, citing postpartum psychosis as a result of over medication.
During the five-week long trial, prosecutors argued the killings were intentional and well planned, not the work of someone who had lost control.
On the day of the killings, Clancy asked her husband Patrick Clancy to leave their home to get takeout food and to pick up something at a pharmacy.
She strangled her children with exercise bands and then allegedly attempted to kill herself, but her efforts failed and left her paralyzed and in a wheelchair for life.
Patrick, who has since remarried, has publicly forgiven his ex-wife and come out in her defense, describing her as a good mother who became ill.
Clancy admitted to strangling her children while she sent her husband out to run errands, but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity
A jury panel of nine women and three men, who were not sequestered, are attempting to decide Clancy’s fate
Both Patrick and Lindsay Clancy have filed separate lawsuits against several of her medical providers alleging that they overmedicated Clancy while treating her for postpartum mental health issues.
During the trial, jurors heard at length from medical professionals who treated her, as well as from friends and relatives she had told about her mental health problems.
They also heard from medical experts called by prosecutors and the defense who disagreed about her likely state of mind when she killed the children.
The killings happened less than three weeks after Clancy was discharged from a psychiatric hospital.
During deliberations, the jury asked to see the bloody knife that Clancy used in an attempt to take her life, along with bags containing empty prescription pill bottles that were found in her house.
Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, held up a bag of empty pill bottles that he said he found in Clancy’s nightstand during his closing argument.
He argued it showed the police did not thoroughly investigate and questioned why they did not seize it as evidence.
