Lindsay Clancy could face a second trial over the deaths of her three young children after a jury failed to reach a unanimous decision on whether she should be convicted or acquitted.

Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial in Plymouth, Massachusetts, court shortly before 2:30pm ET on Friday, after an emergency appeal filed by Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, was unsuccessful.

Clancy, who killed her three young children in December 2023, now faces the prospect of a difficult retrial. She has acknowledged killing the children but argues she was overmedicated while suffering from postpartum psychosis and maintains that their deaths were not murder.

A hearing on the next steps in the case is scheduled for September 29. District Attorney Tim Cruz has continued to characterize the children’s deaths as cold-blooded murder, though he declined to say whether prosecutors will seek a retrial, stressing that no final decision has been made.

Prosecutors are now weighing several possible paths, including trying Clancy again on lesser charges or asking for the case to be decided by a judge instead of a jury.

The jury panel of nine women and three men spent over 37 hours deliberating the case after five weeks of evidence.

They sent four notes to the judge this week saying they had been unable to reach a verdict. Yesterday it emerged that 11 of the 12 jurors had come to the same verdict, but that a twelfth holdout was refusing to follow them.

Clancy’s lawyer Kevin Reddington filed an appeal claiming this unidentified juror was biased towards people with mental disabilities.

The final note sent by jurors on Friday morning read: ‘It is with a heavy heart that we are unable to come to a unanimous decision and will not be able to.’

Friday’s Hail Mary motion was put before Associate Justice Dalia Argaez Wendlandt around 2pm ET.

The brief hearing took place over Zoom shortly before 2pm ET, with Associate Justice Dalia Argaez Wendlandt issuing her ruling shortly afterwards.

Clancy was on trial for killing her three children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan, at her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in 2023.

She admitted to killing her children but pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity, citing postpartum psychosis as a result of overmedication.

A few moments before the mistrial was declared, Reddington suggested to Judge Sullivan that he still had the power to send the jury back out to deliberate again, one final time.

The panel could not agree on whether Clancy, 36, is guilty of murder, manslaughter, or not criminally responsible for her actions by Friday morning.

During the sensational five weeks of testimony, prosecutors argued the killings were intentional and well planned, not the work of someone who had lost control.

The mistrial was declared hours after tensions between Clancy’s defense attorney Kevin Reddington and Judge Sullivan boiled over. That came after Reddington accused Sullivan of giving a ‘soft’ instruction to jurors about how to interpret the concept of reasonable doubt.

In 2020, the US Supreme Court ruled that jurors must reach a unanimous verdict in serious criminal cases – like Clancy’s alleged murder of her three young children – or a mistrial will automatically be declared.

The first time the jury announced they were deadlocked on Tuesday, the judge ordered them to continue deliberations.

On Wednesday, the jury came back after lunch and told the judge they were still unable to come to a decision.

Judge Sullivan then read the panel the Tuey-Rodriguez instruction, also known as the ‘dynamite charge’ – which guides them that they are in the best position to reach a verdict and that a future jury would not be better equipped than them.

It is a final instruction read to a jury in Massachusetts before a mistrial can be declared. A judge can give the instruction a maximum of two times.

On Thursday around 3pm, the jury sent the judge a note, which prompted fierce discussion in the courtroom between the defense and prosecuting attorneys.

In a sensational move that has not happened in the trial so far, defense attorney Reddington unclasped Clancy’s wheelchair brakes and pushed her to the judge’s bench.

She spoke with the judge before being wheeled back to her bench.

The judge then brought each of the 12 jurors in to speak to him, one by one.

MORE STORY: Former DJ Who Strangled Listener Gets Life Sentence After Taking Girl Hostage

It is unclear what formed their discussion, but the mood inside the courtroom was tense as each juror spoke briefly for a minute before leaving again.

The judge then brought the entire jury back inside and resumed, where he reiterated the jury’s job to find Clancy guilty or not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Then, for the third time during the blockbuster deliberations, he sent the jury out again.

Before the court adjourned, Reddington spoke to the judge and demanded that ‘one juror’ who is ‘refusing to listen to the law’ be removed from the panel.

The prosecutors argued against this – and the judge did not make a ruling.

The mid-afternoon saga inside the courtroom does not count as the judge inacting a second Tuey-Rodriguez instruction, because the break in deliberations was caused by the foreperson submitting a note.

The law requires the jury to come to a unanimous decision, and if they are unable to, the judge is forced to declare a mistrial.  

A mistrial means the prosecution will have the opportunity to try Clancy again. The trial will have to start over from jury selection. 

A second trial would not violate Clancy’s Fifth Amendment right against double jeopardy, which protects citizens from being punished for the same crime twice.

The Constitution of the United States prevents the government from trying a person again for the same crime after they have already been found innocent or guilty.

But because Clancy’s first trial has resulted in a deadlock, the prosecution is allowed to charge her a second time.

It is unclear whether the prosecution will move forward with a second trial.

Clancy is likely going to be kept institutionalized in the interim while a decision is made.

Brad Bailey, a Boston defense attorney and former prosecutor who is not involved in the case, said the prosecutors could also offer Clancy a plea deal instead of a new trial.

Bailey said: ‘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.’

The district attorney’s office could also decide not to retry the case.

Bailey explained: ‘Sometimes they decide not to, because of the sense that there may be the same result each time they try it, and because of the expenditures involved in trying the case to begin with, particularly when you have expert witnesses.

‘Those are going to be expensive cases.’

These decisions will dictate what will happen to Clancy now that her first jury could not decide on her fate.

For the past three years, Clancy has been held at Tewksbury Hospital, where she has been on suicide watch as she awaited trial.

A retrial would also force her ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, to testify again, and would create the opportunity for both the defense and the prosecution to call new witnesses to the stand.

Clancy would also likely have to sit through the same evidence that caused her to frequently break down during her initial trial, as well as brace for new gruesome details. 

On the day of the killings, Clancy asked Patrick to leave their home to get takeout food and to pick up something at a pharmacy.

She strangled her children with exercise bands and then allegedly attempted to kill herself, but her efforts failed and left her paralyzed and in a wheelchair for life.

Patrick, who has since remarried, has publicly forgiven his ex-wife and come out in her defense, describing her as a good mother who became ill.

Both Patrick and Clancy have filed separate lawsuits against several of her medical providers, alleging that they overmedicated Clancy while treating her for postpartum mental health issues.

Also Read: Lindsay Clancy’s Hidden Wheelchair Message Sparks Outrage

At this pace, it can feel as though nearly everyone could be described as “on the spectrum” within the next two decades.

That was the striking takeaway after reviewing a recent report examining the sharp rise in autism diagnoses. Researchers in Europe found that between 2001 and 2020, the number of people identified as having some form of autism increased dramatically.

But the most important detail may be what did not change: the study found no corresponding increase in severe autism, defined as autism accompanied by intellectual disability.

Over the 20-year period, diagnoses of autism with intellectual disability remained essentially unchanged. By contrast, autism diagnoses among people without intellectual disability surged, climbing by 1,800% from 2001 to 2020.

Put simply, for every one person diagnosed with autism without intellectual disability in 2001, 18 people received that diagnosis in 2020.

Professor Uta Frith at University College London has been studying autism for 60 years. Commenting on this study, she expressed concern about “diagnostic inflation,” which has the effect of “pathologizing normal human variations.”

That’s a fancy way of saying that Professor Frith is skeptical about whether all these people with autism truly have autism. They may just be normal people who are being diagnosed with autism because they have issues with social interaction.

I have been a family physician for more than 30 years, and I think Professor Frith has a point.

Social media is part of the problem. One popular TikTok video, with more than 11 million views, presents a series of statements. If you agree with the statement, then you may be on the spectrum. One of the statements in that TikTok video is “You don’t like talking on the phone because phone conversations are stressful.”

OK, I’m a family doctor, and I can tell you with confidence that about half of the adults I see would agree with that statement.

American researchers recently studied 100 popular TikTok videos about autism and found those videos to be “unsatisfactory” and “often misleading.”

Researchers have also documented that it’s much easier to be diagnosed with autism today compared with 20 years ago: clinicians will make the diagnosis on the basis of many fewer symptoms.

RELATED: ICE Detainer Filed for Migrant in Crash That Killed Maryland Mom, Daughter

But it feels good!

Professor Frith notes that teenagers and adults newly diagnosed with autism “often report overwhelmingly positive effects. They state that the diagnosis explains their lifelong struggles and liberates them from self-blame. In this way, the label itself can be therapeutic without any formal treatment.”

So what’s not to like? Where’s the harm? Why is this a problem?

It’s a problem because it turns normal human variation into a diagnostic label.

“I’m on the spectrum” is so much cooler than “I have trouble making friends; I feel myself to be awkward socially.” It also shifts responsibility.

If I say “I have trouble making friends,” then maybe I should do something about that. Maybe I should make more of an effort. But if I say “I’m on the spectrum,” then it’s not a problem anymore. It’s just who I am. It’s not going to change. “Neurodivergent” is now part of my identity.

In the new edition of my book “Boys Adrift: The Six Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men,” I explore the rise in psychiatric diagnoses in the United States. I cite a report from the CDC showing that 23% of 17-year-old American boys have now been diagnosed with ADHD, and the great majority of these boys are on medication.

As recently as 1987, the official estimate of the American Psychiatric Association was that ADHD “may occur in as many as 3% of children.”

So we’ve gone from 3 out of 100, to nearly 1 in 4, in 40 years.

Resist the temptation to medicalize, to pathologize, to put a diagnostic label on who you are.

If you feel uncomfortable talking on the phone, if you have trouble making friends, don’t label yourself as being “on the spectrum.” Find the courage to try, to make an effort, to be more human. You can change. I’ve seen it happen.

Leonard Sax, MD, PhD, is the author of “Boys Adrift: The Six Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men.”

Federal immigration authorities are seeking custody of a Salvadoran national who is accused of killing a mother and her daughter in a suspected drunk-driving crash after allegedly traveling the wrong way on a Maryland freeway.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has filed a detainer request with Montgomery County officials for Jose Antonio Caballero-Nolasco, the Department of Homeland Security told News Media.

Caballero-Nolasco faces two counts of grossly negligent manslaughter, two counts of homicide by motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol, and one count of causing life-threatening injury by motor vehicle.

Authorities said Caballero-Nolasco was impaired when he drove the wrong way on Interstate 270 on Aug. 29, moments before his vehicle collided head-on with another car carrying four people.

Two of the occupants, Musammat Shamima Begum, 46, and her 23-year-old daughter Areebah Jahin, were killed. They were from Northern Virginia and were on their way home at the time of the crash, affiliate FOX 5 D.C. reported.

Two others, a 62-year-old man and an 8-year-old girl, survived and were taken to local hospitals.

ALSO READ: Caitlin Clark Posts Double-Double in World Cup Debut as Team USA Dominates China

Investigators said they believe that alcohol impairment was a contributing factor in the crash.

“This tragedy was completely avoidable. Musammat Shamima Begum and Areebah Jahin should still be alive. ICE has lodged a detainer asking officials in Maryland to commit to not releasing this killer back onto our streets,” said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their family, and for a swift recovery for those who were injured.”

Responding officers at the scene of the crash said Caballero-Nolasco smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes, and slurred speech after the crash. He did not show any signs of braking before the crash, FOX 5 reported.

“There were some beer bottles that he admitted that he had been drinking,” said Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy. “There were other bottles that were empty and full bottles were found within the vehicle.”

Caballero-Nolasco was taken to a local hospital before being transferred to the Montgomery County Detention Center.

Lindsay Clancy’s defense lawyer, Kevin Reddington, accused the lone holdout juror in her trial of harboring bias toward people with mental illness or disabilities, making what amounted to a last-ditch effort to prevent the case from ending in a mistrial.

Reddington filed an emergency appeal Friday with the Massachusetts Supreme Court, seeking a stay that would remove the holdout juror after deliberations ended in an 11-1 split. Judge William Sullivan held off on formally declaring a mistrial so the defense could pursue the appeal.

In the emergency filing, Reddington alleged that the juror showed “a bias against those who suffer from debilitating mental illness.”

He argued that a mistrial was still preventable, writing that a “mistrial at this point is entirely avoidable, but only if the court does its job.”

Reddington also invoked the Americans with Disabilities Act in his request, telling the judge he believed “this is a situation that there is a clear and present danger that this individual (the holdout juror) for some reason is taking a position that is intractable, regardless of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The move from Reddington divided opinions, with some questioning how the Disabilities Act was relevant while others praised him for fighting to the end for his client.

‘The Disabilities Act? Reddington is desperate and shameless. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear him ask for sympathy for Clancy because all her kids are dead,’ said journalist Gerry Callahan. 

Cathy Russon, the managing editor of Court TV, countered on X: ‘No one can ever accuse Kevin Reddington of not doing everything he possibly can for his client.’ 

Attorney Jason Goldman, who is representing convicted murderer Bryan Kohberger in his ongoing appeal, told the Daily Mail that Reddington’s efforts were an ‘extreme long shot’ to try and save his case.

‘It’s definitely a hail Mary,’ Goldman said.   

Goldman explained that Reddington is ‘clearly confident this is an 11-1’ in his favor, and is trying a ‘long shot’ to try and secure a victory. 

Goldman added that the legal precedent for trying to remove a juror at the 11th hour is ‘few and far between’, but ‘there is no downside’ for Reddington at this point. 

‘I can’t imagine it working, but the judge is hearing it to try and protect the record. (The judge) is being extra cautious’ in case of a future appeal, he said. 

Reddington’s last-ditch legal filing came after over 37 hours of deliberations from the jury, which had previously sent notes to Sullivan on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday saying they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. 

Reddington must now appeal to Massachusetts’ Supreme Court for an emergency stay. If he is successful, the same jury could be sent back to deliberate the case yet again. If Reddington fails, Clancy faces a grueling retrial.

She is on trial for killing her three children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan, at her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in 2023.

She admitted to killing her children but pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity, citing postpartum psychosis as a result of overmedication.

A few moments before the mistrial was declared, Reddington suggested to Judge Sullivan that he still had the power to send the jury back out to deliberate again one final time.

The panel could not agree on whether Clancy, 36, is guilty of murder, manslaughter, or not criminally responsible for her actions by Friday morning.

Prosecutors pushed for a mistrial and will likely want to retry Clancy, but have yet to offer further insight into possible future plans.

During the sensational five weeks of testimony, prosecutors argued the killings were intentional and well planned, not the work of someone who had lost control.

California’s Labor Day weekend escape may start with a familiar headache: hours of slow-moving traffic and a view of the bumper ahead.

With millions of travelers loading up for coastal trips, desert getaways and one final summer outing, drivers are running into a tough holiday traffic equation, according to mobility analytics firm INRIX and AAA.

Labor Day creates a sharper crunch than holidays such as Christmas or Thanksgiving, when trips are often spread across several days. This weekend’s departures tend to pile up fast, but there is a straightforward way to avoid the worst delays: get on the road early.

INRIX projects the heaviest outbound traffic will hit Thursday and Friday afternoons, when long-weekend travelers merge with regular commuter congestion.

Drivers leaving Friday are advised to depart before noon, because the worst holiday traffic is expected between 12 p.m. and 8 p.m. Those who miss that window may find a brief break Saturday morning, before delays build again from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Sunday remains the undisputed weekend winner with minimal traffic disruptions expected across the state, while the return wave on Labor Day Monday will snare anyone who fails to hit the tarmac before traffic peaks fiercely between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.

READ MORE: A66 Funeral Prompts Early School Closures and Fierce Backlash

Nowhere will that congestion bite harder than Southern California’s premier vacation corridors.

The crown for holiday highway hell goes to Interstate 5 South from Los Angeles down to San Diego. The peak bottleneck hits Friday at about 6 p.m., when commutes could stretch to an excruciating 5 hours and 19 minutes — a 75% increase over normal traffic times.

Meanwhile, desert-bound travelers going from San Diego out towards Palm Springs via Interstate 15 North faced their worst nightmare on Thursday at 5:45 p.m., with estimated drive times ballooning to 4 hours and 12 minutes, marking a 50% surge from normal traffic.

Up north, those going to the state’s capital from San Francisco on Interstate 80 East will face the worst of it on Friday at 4:45 p.m., where traffic spikes by 81%, turning an otherwise quick drive into a 4 hour and 40 minute road trip.

Compounding the misery of inching along baking asphalt is California’s infamous fuel sticker shock. While the national average sits around $4.14 a gallon, Golden State drivers are coughing up an eye-watering average of $5.80 statewide.

San Diego County drivers are getting squeezed for roughly $5.92 a gallon and Los Angeles County for $5.85, according to AAA.