The judge presiding over the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother who admitted to killing her three children, ordered the jury to continue deliberating after jurors again reported being unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
Judge William Sullivan read the jurors what is known as a Tuey-Rodriguez instruction, which instructs the jurors to make their best efforts to reach a unanimous verdict in the case, after they delivered their latest update Wednesday afternoon. According to Massachusetts law, if the jury remains at an impasse after receiving this instruction, the case will result in a mistrial.
Reading from the instruction, Sullivan told the jury that they have “no reason to suppose that the case will ever be submitted to six persons who are more intelligent, more impartial, or more competent to decide it than you are, or that more or clearer evidence will be produced on one side or the other.”
“With all this in mind,” he continued, “it is your duty to decide this case if you can do so conscientiously.”
Clancy, 36, watched the jury as Sullivan delivered the instruction.
The development comes one day after the jury first reported being unable to reach a unanimous verdict in the case.
The jury — comprised of nine women and three men, according to reporters in the courtroom — has been deliberating since Thursday for an estimated 28 hours.
If the case results in a mistrial, it would be up to the local prosecutor, Plymouth County District Attorney Ted Cruz, about whether or not to bring the case before another jury on the same charges.
The trial centers on Clancy’s state of mind at the time she killed 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan in the basement of her Duxbury, Massachusetts home in January 2023.
Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, alleges she was experiencing postpartum psychosis — a rare psychiatric emergency that can affect women after childbirth — at the time of the killings and is urging jurors to find her not guilty by reason of insanity. That verdict would commit Clancy to a state-run psychiatric facility with the opportunity for potential release in the future following review. She has been at one such facility, Tewksbury Hospital, for the past couple of years, and is partially paralyzed as a result of her suicide attempt the night of the killings.
Prosecutors are seeking a triple first-degree murder conviction, which would send Clancy to prison for life without the possibility of parole.
The jury could also find Clancy guilty of second-degree murder, which would result in a life sentence with the possibility of parole, or manslaughter, which could send her to prison for up to 20 years per count.
The trial, which began in July, has featured dozens of emotional witness testimonies and hundreds of exhibits. Clancy’s ex-husband, Patrick, her mother, sister, and former in-laws all testified to the fact that she was a loving mother prior to the killings and emphasized her months-long struggle with postpartum depression and her attempts to seek treatment.
First responders testified about what they saw at the chaotic scene, and medical professionals recounted their efforts to save the children, whom Clancy strangled with exercise bands in the basement.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support.
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