Lindsay Clancy Jury Ends 5th Day Without Verdict as Mistrial Threat Grows

The jury deciding Lindsay Clancy’s fate has finished its fifth consecutive day of deliberations without reaching a verdict, bringing the closely watched murder trial increasingly close to a possible mistrial.

Jurors have now deliberated for roughly 29½ hours. They are expected to return Thursday to continue considering the case.

 

Earlier Wednesday, the jury once again told Judge William Sullivan that it remained deadlocked. In response, the judge delivered a special instruction known as a Tuey-Rodriguez instruction, or “dynamite charge,” urging jurors to continue working toward a unanimous decision.

The instruction asks jurors to consider that another jury may not be better positioned to resolve the case and encourages them to carefully reconsider their respective positions.

If the jurors remain unable to reach an agreement, Sullivan could ultimately declare a mistrial.

Clancy, 36, is charged in the January 2023 deaths of her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months old.

The defense does not dispute that Clancy killed the children inside the family’s Duxbury, Mass., home. Instead, the central issue throughout the trial has been whether she was criminally responsible for her actions at the time.

Clancy has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility.

Her attorney, Kevin Reddington, has argued that Clancy was experiencing severe postpartum psychosis and was suffering the effects of psychiatric medication when she killed her children.

The defense has portrayed Clancy’s mental health as having deteriorated dramatically in the weeks leading up to the killings. Reddington has argued that she repeatedly sought medical help but received inadequate treatment.

Prosecutors have presented a sharply different account.

They contend that Clancy deliberately killed her children and understood the nature and wrongfulness of her actions. Prosecutors have rejected the defense’s claim that she was in a psychotic state that prevented her from being held criminally responsible.

After killing the children, Clancy attempted to take her own life by cutting her wrists and jumping from a second-story window. She survived but suffered severe injuries and is now wheelchair-bound.

Although prosecutors charged her with three counts of first-degree murder, jurors have several possible verdicts available to them, including second-degree murder and manslaughter.

 

They could also find Clancy not guilty or determine that she was not criminally responsible because of a mental disease or defect.

The jury began deliberations on Thursday, Aug. 27. After more than 17 hours, jurors reported Tuesday that they were deadlocked for the first time.

Rather than immediately ending the case, Judge Sullivan instructed them to continue deliberating.

Wednesday’s additional deadlock prompted the judge’s stronger instruction, placing the trial at its most uncertain point yet.

A mistrial would not necessarily end the case.

If the jury is ultimately unable to reach a unanimous verdict, prosecutors could seek to retry Clancy. They have not publicly indicated whether they would pursue another trial if Sullivan declares a mistrial.

For now, however, the jury has been given another opportunity to reach a decision.

After nearly 30 hours of deliberation, the question that has divided the jurors remains the same: whether Lindsay Clancy should be held criminally responsible for the deaths of her three children — or whether her mental state at the time makes her legally not responsible for what happened.