Jury says it cannot reach unanimous verdict in Lindsay Clancy murder trial
Jurors in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, accused of killing her three children in Massachusetts in 2023, were ordered to continue deliberations.
Plymouth, United States. Jurors in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy told a judge on Tuesday that they could not reach a unanimous verdict on charges that she killed her three young children at their Duxbury home in 2023.
Judge William Sullivan instructed the jury to continue deliberating for a fourth day after receiving the note, as the trial entered its sixth week.
Jury deliberations
“After many hours of deliberation, we are unable to come to a unanimous decision,” the jury wrote, according to Sullivan.
The judge noted that the trial had been lengthy, involving more than 80 witnesses and over 300 exhibits, and asked jurors to continue considering the evidence and his instructions.
The note was the second sent by the jury since deliberations began. On Friday, jurors asked to examine prescription pill bottles and a knife Clancy used to cut herself, according to her attorney. They asked no questions on Monday.
Charges and defence
Clancy, 36, is accused of strangling her children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, with exercise bands in the basement of the family home on January 24, 2023.
No one disputes that the children died in the attack. Clancy then cut herself with a knife and jumped from a second-storey window in an unsuccessful attempt to end her life, leaving her paralysed.
Her attorney, Kevin Reddington, has argued that she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, saying she was suffering from postpartum psychosis when the deaths occurred. He described Clancy, a former labour and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, as a loving mother in the midst of a psychotic episode.
Potential outcome
Clancy faces life imprisonment without parole if convicted of first-degree murder. If she is found not guilty by reason of insanity, she would be committed to a state psychiatric hospital for evaluation.
The televised trial has renewed debate in the United States over postpartum mental health treatment and the legal handling of cases involving mothers who kill their children.
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