Jurors have twice informed the judge that they remain unable to reach a unanimous decision on whether the Massachusetts mother should be held criminally responsible for the deaths of her three young children.
PLYMOUTH, Mass — Deliberations in the Lindsay Clancy trial moved into a sixth day Thursday, as the deadlocked jury continued trying to reach a verdict and prevent a mistrial after twice signaling to the court that they could not agree on her criminal responsibility in the killings of her children.
Clancy, 36, a former labor and delivery nurse, has not disputed that she strangled her children in the basement of the family’s home in 2023. Her defense team argues she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time, while prosecutors contend she understood her actions when she killed 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan Clancy.
Moments before jurors returned to the courtroom Thursday, walking in with their eyes lowered, Clancy sat at the defense table and took a deep breath.
The livestreamed trial has drawn widespread attention, filling the courtroom with reporters and spectators and fueling intense public debate. At the center of the case are difficult questions about criminal culpability, postpartum mental health and how the justice system should weigh claims of severe maternal mental illness after childbirth.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.
Lindsay Clancy’s reaction to the jury
Clancy stared at the jury with no expression on Wednesday as Judge William Sullivan explained to the courtroom that jurors were again at an impasse — a sign there’s a growing chance of a hung jury and the trial ending without a resolution.
Sullivan told the jurors not to abandon their own convictions just to reach a verdict, but urged them to seriously consider opposing views and reassess their positions if appropriate.
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No one knows, he said, that another jury would be “more intelligent, more impartial or more competent to decide it than you are.”
Lindsay Clancy could go on trial again
If the jury ultimately can’t agree on a verdict, the judge could declare a mistrial. Prosecutors would then have to decide whether to put Clancy on trial again, drop the charges or try to negotiate a plea deal with her lawyer.
If the jury decides Clancy was criminally responsible for her actions, it could convict her of either murder or manslaughter. If she is acquitted, a judge could still order her confined to a mental health facility if an evaluation determines that she poses a danger to the public.
The evidence against Lindsay Clancy
Jurors have heard testimony from relatives and doctors about how Clancy’s mental health declined in the months before the killings and how her treatment included several medications and a short stay in a psychiatric hospital.
Medical experts hired by the prosecution and the defense reached sharply different conclusions about her psychiatric state when she killed the children.
Patrick Clancy has said in interviews that he forgives his now ex-wife, whom he views as ill rather than evil.
Clancy strangled the children with exercise bands in their home’s basement, then jumped from a second-floor window. She 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.
The prosecution argues she deliberately sent her then-husband on errands to get him out of the house, and prosecutors have questioned the seriousness of her suicide attempt.