Lindsay Clancy trial: Jury returns for potential final day of deliberations after 2nd deadlock

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — The jury in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial returns to court Thursday morning for what could be its final day of deliberations after twice telling the judge it remains unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

Since the end of closing arguments last Thursday, jurors have now spent roughly 30 hours over five days reviewing evidence and testimony in one of Massachusetts’ most closely watched criminal cases.

On Wednesday afternoon, the jury informed Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan for a second time that it was deadlocked and unable to agree on a verdict.

Rather than declaring a mistrial, Sullivan delivered what Massachusetts calls a Tuey-Rodriguez instruction, a legal charge given when jurors report they cannot reach a unanimous decision.

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“There is no reason to suppose that the case will ever be submitted to 12 persons more intelligent, more impartial, or more competent to decide it, that more or clearer evidence will be produced,” Sullivan told jurors. “And with this in mind, it’s your duty to decide the case, if you can do it conscientiously.”

The instruction encourages jurors to continue discussing the case, carefully consider one another’s views, and make every reasonable effort to reach a unanimous verdict without abandoning sincerely held beliefs.

Although jurors are not told this directly, Boston 25 legal expert Elise Hershon says the Tuey-Rodriguez instruction is generally considered one of the final tools available to a judge before determining whether a jury is hopelessly deadlocked.

A closely watched case

The trial has drawn national and international attention, fueled by broader questions surrounding postpartum mental health and criminal responsibility.

Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse from Duxbury, is charged with three counts of murder in the January 2023 deaths of her children, Cora, Dawson, and Callan Clancy.

Prosecutors allege Clancy intentionally strangled the children with exercise bands in the basement of the family home before attempting to take her own life by jumping from a second-story window.

The fall left Clancy paralyzed from the waist down.

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Competing views of Clancy’s mental state

The central issue facing jurors is whether Clancy was criminally responsible for her actions.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington has argued that Clancy was suffering from severe, untreated postpartum psychosis and was unable to control her actions at the time of the killings.

The prosecution does not dispute that Clancy struggled with significant mental health issues but argues she understood what she was doing and knew it was wrong.

Jurors have heard weeks of testimony from family members, medical professionals, and competing psychiatric experts who reached sharply different conclusions about Clancy’s mental state.

What happens next?

With no verdict after five days of deliberations and two declarations of deadlock, attention now shifts to Thursday.

Judge Sullivan dismissed jurors for the day shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday and instructed them to return Thursday morning to continue deliberations.

Whether jurors ultimately reach a unanimous decision, remain deadlocked, or force the court to consider a mistrial remains to be seen.

For now, the fate of the case remains in the hands of the 12 jurors tasked with deciding one of the most consequential criminal trials in Massachusetts in recent memory.

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