PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP/WBEN) - A Massachusetts jury will continue to deliberate for a fifth day on whether Lindsay Clancy was criminally responsible when she strangled and killed her three children in 2023.
Clancy doesn’t deny strangling her children at their home, but says postpartum psychosis led to her actions. Prosecutors argue she knew what she was doing.
Not long after arriving at the courthouse on Tuesday, the jury sent Judge William Sullivan a note saying they had been unable to reach a unanimous decision despite many hours of back and forth. He told them to keep trying.
What happens if they can’t reach a verdict?
A mistrial will be declared and the case essentially goes back to the same status as before the trial, with the 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse charged with murder and held at a psychiatric hospital awaiting a resolution of the criminal case.
Clancy will likely go back on trial, but prosecutors have options
Prosecutors will decide whether to try again with a new jury. If they do, the jury selection process will begin again and a new trial will be scheduled.
Prosecutors could also offer a plea deal to Clancy, said Brad Bailey, a Boston defense attorney and former prosecutor who is not involved in the case.“
Any time the threat of a retrial with murder one hanging over the client is re-interjected, defense lawyers will, at the very least, explore whether or not there’s any interest in a resolution,” Bailey said.
Clancy's defense will likely push to drop the charges
Bailey expects her defense attorney to aggressively lobby against another trial.
A conviction could mean life in prison for Clancy, while an acquittal might lead to confinement in a mental health facility.
Karen Read was another high-profile mistrial in Massachusetts
Karen Read was charged in the 2022 death of her Boston police officer boyfriend. Jurors in her 2024 trial deadlocked on the fifth day of deliberations, leading to a mistrial. Prosecutors chose to retry the case, but a different jury last year found Read not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.
Like Read's case, Clancy's has drawn a divided public reaction.
