Judge in Lindsay Clancy trial orders jury to keep deliberating after stalemate
Washington Examiner · RC · trust 52/100
The jury deliberating in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three children, has come to a stalemate as the jurors have not agreed upon a unanimous conclusion in the trial.
Clancy’s lawyers are arguing she was in a postpartum psychotic state when she strangled her three children in 2023, with Clancy pleading insanity in the defense of the murders. If the jury finds her guilty, Clancy faces up to life in prison, but if the jury finds her not guilty on the grounds of insanity, Clancy will be admitted into a state mental health institution.
“After many hours of deliberation, we are unable to come to a unanimous decision,” the jury wrote in a letter to Judge William Sullivan, the Massachusetts Superior Court judge presiding over the case.
“I brought you back out because I know that this was a long trial,” Sullivan told the jury in response to their note. “All right, I know. There were over 80 witnesses, there were over 300 exhibits. But because of that, I’m going to ask you to go back out, keeping in mind all of the instructions that I gave you, to go out and to continue your deliberations at this time.”
Closing arguments concluded at the trial on Thursday, Aug. 27, after which the case was handed back to the jury.
The 12-person jury, made up of nine women and three men, had been deliberating for 17 hours before sending Sullivan the note on Tuesday that they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
The jury will now continue deliberating on the case at the judge’s discretion after hearing five weeks of testimony from the over 80 witnesses in the trial. While initially deliberating, the jury had sent one request to view evidence in the courtroom: the prescription bottles and knife believed to have been associated with Clancy’s suicide attempt, according to The New York Times .
Clancy has been charged with murdering her three children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, with exercise bands.
The prosecution in the case argues that Clancy, who says she attempted suicide after killing her three children, was struggling with her mental health but still made the conscious “choice” to kill her children.
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