Lindsay Clancy Trial: Judge Sends Back Struggling Jury to Try to Reach a Verdict
New York Times · LC · trust 63/100
Jurors said they were deadlocked after 18 hours, but the judge pushed them to keep trying to reach a verdict in the high-profile case of a mother who strangled her three children.
Listen · 5:04 min Share full article Lindsay Clancy watching jury members on Monday. Credit... Pool photo by Greg Derr By Maia Spoto
“After many hours of deliberation, we are unable to come to a unanimous decision,” the jurors wrote in a note read by the judge in open court about an hour after they resumed discussions on Tuesday.
Judge William Sullivan sent them back to the jury room, noting that he knows the trial was long and taxing, with over 80 witnesses and more than 300 exhibits. “But because of that,” he said, “I’m going to ask you to go back out” to keep deliberating.
Failure to reach a unanimous verdict would result in a hung jury and a mistrial, with neither a conviction nor an acquittal. The murder charges against Ms. Clancy would remain in place, and prosecutors could decide whether to try her again with a different jury.
Entering the day, jurors had spent about 17 hours discussing the case, with only one brief request to the court about viewing evidence. They started deliberations on Thursday afternoon after more than four weeks of often wrenching testimony at the courthouse in Plymouth, Mass.
Judge Sullivan has so far gaveled the court into session each day at 9 a.m. and sent jurors home at about 4 p.m. He dismissed them on Monday with the words: “Stay the course.”
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