PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — A judge declared a mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial Friday after jurors said they could not reach a unanimous verdict on whether she was criminally responsible for killing her three young children.
The mistrial, in the seventh day of deliberations, leaves the case unresolved and allows prosecutors to try Clancy again.
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The deliberations took a dramatic turn late in the week when the judge said he was going to declare a mistrial Friday before suddenly changing course and giving her defense attorney a chance to appeal to the state’s highest appeals court.
That came a day after the foreperson told the judge that a lone holdout was refusing to follow the court’s instructions about reasonable doubt, offering a rare glimpse at possible conflict inside the jury room. Clancy’s attorney demanded the juror be kicked off the case.
The livestreamed trial drew attention to maternal mental health after childbirth and was closely watched by a polarized public. Clancy’s sympathizers saw her as a loving mom who had realized something was badly wrong in the months ahead of the killings and sought help, including checking herself in to a psychiatric hospital. Her detractors said she deserved to be punished for an evil and selfish act.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — The judge in the Lindsay Clancy trial said he was going to declare a mistrial Friday before suddenly changing course and giving her defense attorney one hour to appeal.
Judge William Sullivan's stunning move came after he announced in court that jurors — now in their seventh day of deliberations — sent a third note saying they can't reach a unanimous decision on whether the Massachusetts mother is criminally responsible for killing her three young children in 2023.
“I’m going to declare a mistrial at this point,” Sullivan said before the defense asked for a stay of the declaration. At the defense table, Clancy showed no visible reaction to the exchange.
The trial has generated intense interest for more than a month, deeply dividing the public and drawing attention to issues around maternal mental health after childbirth. Clancy’s attorney said she was suffering from a rare condition called postpartum psychosis when she strangled her kids, the youngest just 8 months old, then tried to take her own life.
Prosecutors said Clancy, a 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse, knew what she was doing.
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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.
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The judge and Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, went back and forth after the judge signaled he would declare a mistrial and said he would summon the jury to break the news.
Sullivan suddenly gave Clancy’s lawyer time to ask the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the state’s highest appellate court, if the mistrial order could be stopped.
“What I’m asking for is time to file a single-justice appeal for this travesty,” Reddington said. He was upset over Sullivan’s earlier refusal to remove a juror.
“I’ll hold off for an hour,” the judge said.
The jury’s foreperson had told the judge Thursday that a single juror wouldn’t follow the court’s instructions about reasonable doubt. That extraordinary disclosure offered the clearest glimpse yet of what may be keeping jurors from reaching a verdict.
Trial judges don’t often allow a defense attorney to file such emergency petitions, said Joseph Perullo, a criminal defense attorney in Massachusetts.
Perullo said it’s highly unlikely it will be granted. The petition will be considered by a single justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court who will look at whether the trial judge abused his discretion, committed a reversible error of law or did something that is “egregious and should be corrected prior to a mistrial being announced.”
“That is a high bar,” he said, adding the justice could initially grant a stay pausing the trial court proceedings and then consider the defense's appeal.
There are six alternate jurors who could be added if one of the 12 is removed.
There was an audible gasp in court when the judge first signaled he would declare a mistrial after reading the jury's note aloud.
“It is with a heavy heart that we report we are unable to come to a unanimous decision and will not be able to,” the jury wrote, according to Sullivan.
On Thursday, Sullivan had brought in each juror individually and questioned them in private. The judge then reminded them that proof beyond a reasonable doubt does not mean proof beyond all possible doubt.
The burden of proof is on the prosecution, he said, before sending them back to continue deliberating.
If a mistrial is declared, prosecutors would 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.
Clancy admits she strangled her children with exercise bands in the basement of their home before using multiple methods to try to end her life. According to her defense, she had bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis that, ultimately, led her to believe she heard a voice telling her to kill the children so she could kill herself.
Postpartum psychosis is more serious and less common than postpartum depression, afflicting 1 to 2 out of 1,000 women after delivery, according to estimates by researchers.
The prosecution argues Clancy deliberately sent her then-husband on errands to get him out of the house, and prosecutors have questioned the seriousness of her suicide attempt.
The jury went back to work Friday after the judge rejected a request from Clancy’s attorney to again individually question the juror who was the subject of the note about reasonable doubt instructions.
“Reading that note carefully and strictly,” Sullivan said, “that note does not indicate this is a person who refuses to follow the law.”
Reddington on Thursday asked Sullivan to dismiss the juror from the case, arguing the person had refused to follow the judge's instructions. Prosecutors objected, and Sullivan let the juror stay.
For the first time during the trial, Clancy was brought to join a sidebar conversation with the judge and lawyers. Paralyzed from the waist down after her suicide attempt, Clancy uses a wheelchair, which Reddington pushed to the front of the courtroom.
“She has a right to know what’s going on,” he later told reporters.
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Associated Press writers John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Ed White in Detroit contributed.
