PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Jurors weighing the case against Lindsay Clancy wrapped up a fourth day of deliberations Tuesday without reaching a verdict, after earlier alerting the court that they were split over whether the Massachusetts mother should be held criminally responsible for the deaths of her three young children.
Soon after returning to the courthouse, the panel sent a note to Judge William Sullivan saying that, despite hours of discussion, they had not been able to come to a unanimous decision. Sullivan instructed the jurors to continue deliberating.
The message marked the first public sign of a deadlock in a high-profile trial that has drawn national attention to postpartum mental health, maternal mental illness and the difficult legal questions surrounding criminal responsibility. The case has also sharply divided public opinion.
Clancy, 36, a former labor and delivery nurse, has not disputed that she strangled her children. Her defense maintains that postpartum psychosis drove her actions, while prosecutors contend she understood what she was doing at the time. She has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility.
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They're expected to resume deliberations Wednesday.
What happens if there's a hung jury
The jury, which began deliberating Thursday afternoon, could convict Clancy of murder or manslaughter, or acquit her if they believe her deteriorating mental health was to blame.
A conviction could lead to a life prison sentence. If she is acquitted, a judge could still order her confined to a mental health facility if an evaluation determines she is a danger to the public.
If jurors can't reach a verdict and a mistrial is declared, the charges against Clancy would remain. Prosecutors would need to decide whether to try Clancy again before an entirely new group of jurors.
Prosecutors could offer a plea deal to Clancy, although her attorney is more likely to push for them to drop the charges, said Brad Bailey, a Boston defense attorney and former prosecutor who is not involved in the case.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington called it a good sign that the jury hasn't given up. "I think that they're showing that they are more than willing to keep working at it," he said.
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Trial focused on Lindsay Clancy's mental health
During more than four weeks of testimony, jurors heard differing views from medical experts.
Clancy's lawyer argued she loved her children, but killed them because she lost her grip on reality - and on herself - due to bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness that can follow childbirth.
Prosecutors said Clancy was depressed and tired of living, and made a conscious choice to kill the children. A forensic psychologist who testified for the prosecution said he concluded that Clancy killed the children because she wanted to end her life but didn't want to leave them behind.
Clancy's mother and sister testified that she became anxious, paranoid and suicidal after the birth of her third child. She sought treatment for her worsening mental health, including a stay in a psychiatric hospital, in the months before killing Cora, Dawson and Callan Clancy, ages 5, 3 and 8 months.
Less than three weeks after being discharged, she sent her husband on an errand and killed the children with exercise bands in the basement of their home south of Boston. She then jumped from a second-floor window and remains paralyzed from the waist down. Her lawyers say she heard a voice telling her to kill the children so she could end her own life.
Lindsay Clancy didn't take the stand during her trial
Clancy chose not to testify. She watched the proceedings from the defense table, occasionally weeping, as when prosecutors showed autopsy photos of the children to the jury.
Jurors spent two days listening to testimony from her former husband, Patrick Clancy, and his anguished 911 call. He was on the phone when he discovered the children's bodies, minutes after finding his wife.
Patrick Clancy has said in interviews that he forgives his ex-wife, whom he viewed as ill rather than evil. The trial marks the first time he has seen Lindsay Clancy since the killings.
Postpartum psychosis, the condition that Clancy's attorney says she had when she killed the children, is more serious and less common than postpartum depression. Researchers estimate that the condition afflicts 1 to 2 out of 1,000 women after delivery.
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Associated Press reporter Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed.
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