The jury weighing Lindsay Clancy’s fate has finished another day of deliberations without reaching a verdict after telling the judge earlier Tuesday that they remained deadlocked.
Jurors were dismissed for the evening by Judge William Sullivan and are expected to return Wednesday morning to resume deliberations.
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The latest development came after the jury informed Sullivan that it was unable to reach a unanimous decision. Rather than ending deliberations, the judge instructed the panel to continue working through the case.
The jury has now spent four days considering the evidence in Clancy’s closely watched murder trial.
Clancy, 36, is charged with killing her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — at the family’s home in Duxbury, Mass., in January 2023.
Clancy has acknowledged that she killed the children before jumping from a second-story window in an apparent suicide attempt. However, she has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility.
Her defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, has argued that Clancy was experiencing postpartum psychosis and was suffering from the effects of psychiatric medication at the time of the killings.
The prosecution has disputed that explanation, arguing that Clancy was not psychotic and deliberately carried out the killings.
The jury has several possible verdicts available. Jurors can consider first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter. They can also find Clancy not guilty or determine that she was not criminally responsible because of a mental disease or defect.
As deliberations continued Tuesday, Reddington expressed confidence that jurors were seriously considering the evidence.
“I think they’ve demonstrated the fact that they’re very, very sincere,” Reddington said, according to The Boston Globe. He also described the jurors as “working hard.”
The defense has spent much of the trial arguing that Clancy’s mental health deteriorated dramatically after the birth of her children and that she sought help from medical professionals before the tragedy.
During closing arguments, Reddington maintained that Clancy had been failed by the healthcare providers who treated her.
Prosecutors have presented a fundamentally different interpretation of the events.
Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague argued that Clancy was deeply depressed but understood what she was doing when she killed her children.
Sprague told jurors that Clancy had reached a point where she no longer wanted to continue living with her emotional pain.
“Those kids were her protective factor,” Sprague said. “Those kids were keeping her from ending her misery. So she had to remove the protective factor.”
The trial lasted several weeks and featured testimony from numerous witnesses and medical experts.
Patrick Clancy, Lindsay’s former husband and the father of the three children, also testified during the proceedings. He has previously said that he has forgiven Clancy for the deaths of their children.
For now, the case remains unresolved.
The jury will return Wednesday morning and continue deliberating, with the fate of Clancy still depending on whether the 12 jurors can ultimately agree on a verdict.
