The judge in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial has officially declared a mistrial after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict for the third time.
The prosecution now gets to decide whether to try Clancy again. The 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse has been accused of killing her three small children. She’s pleaded not guilty to three first-degree murder charges in the deaths of her children, 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan, per NBC News.
Judge William Sullivan said earlier on Friday that he was going to declare a mistrial, but gave Clancy’s defense attorney time to appeal to Massachusetts’ top court. The emergency appeal was denied quickly.
The 12 jurors remained deadlocked after more than 36 hours of deliberation over seven days and after hearing 85 witnesses testify during the trial.
The jury’s task was to determine whether Clancy was criminally responsible in the deaths or whether, because of mental illness, she was not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility.
On Thursday, Clancy’s defense tried to get a holdout juror removed for not following the court’s instructions on reasonable doubt. The emergency appeal was another attempt to have this juror removed, per CNN.
Sullivan received the first deadlock note from the jury on Tuesday and the second note came on Wednesday. Both times, the judge asked them to continue working toward a verdict.
Massachusetts law states that a judge can only ask a jury to keep deliberating twice, unless it consents to further deliberations. After a third deadlock, the judge can declare a mistrial, as Sullivan did, per The New York Times.
What’s next in the Lindsay Clancy case?
Prosecutors, who argue that Clancy intentionally killed her children, will now decide whether to retry Clancy, drop the charges, or attempt to negotiate a plea deal with her lawyer.
Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz said the prosecution will decide if they want to retry Clancy at a future court hearing.
“There will be no decisions made today regarding that,” Cruz said, per CNN.
Later in his comments, he said that the decision will be made “shortly.”
Cruz also emphasized that the trial was about “getting justice for those three little babies.”
“Our priority has always been to fight for Cora, for Dawson and for Callan,” he added.
Timothy Cruz, the district attorney, tells reporters that he will make no decision Friday on a retrial.
Sullivan set a status hearing in the case for Sept. 29.
Prosecutors also have the option of lowering the charges against Clancy — one option is charging her with second-degree murder — opening the door to a bench trial. In a bench trial, the judge delivers a verdict without a jury.
Even without a conviction, it is unlikely Clancy will go free. She is currently held at Tewksbury Hospital, a state-run facility with inpatient psychiatric care. It is likely she will stay there or at a similar facility, per The New York Times.
If she does not receive a criminal retrial, it is possible she could face civil commitment proceedings, which would keep her in a facility.
Clancy’s defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, stated that he doesn’t think Clancy is emotionally prepared to endure another trial, but he would continue to represent her.
What kind of interest has the case and the issue generated?
For over a month, the trial has generated intense interest among a deeply divided public and has drawn attention to postpartum mental health. Clancy’s defense has said that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she strangled the three children and tried to take her own life, per The Associated Press.
Postpartum psychosis “can alter a new mother’s sense of reality and is considered a psychiatric emergency. It is more severe and less common than postpartum depression,” per NBC News.
Because of this, her defense argued that Clancy was not criminally responsible for the killings committed on Jan. 24, 2023.
The trial has garnered a lot of attention around maternal healthcare, the mental health system and how it treats women. The prosecution has said the trial was not about that.
As the trial was livestreamed, the case captivated the nation and prompted many people to start supporting Clancy. Crowds would gather outside the courtroom in solidarity. There have also been conspiracy theories about the case circling the internet, per NBC News.