Lindsay Clancy judge declares a mistrial after the state’s top court denies defense’s appeal

Lindsay Clancy’s triple-murder trial ended in a mistrial Friday, following a last-minute appeal by her attorney to prevent the outcome after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict.

The jury weighing Clancy’s fate was sent back twice to deliberate but said that “with a heavy heart” it was ultimately unable to reach a verdict after seven days of deliberations.

With the deadlock, Judge William Sullivan told the court he would declare a mistrial in the case, prompting Clancy’s defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, to announce his intent to appeal to Massachusetts’ top court, an effort which ultimately failed.

The jury was tasked with determining whether Clancy, 36, was criminally responsible in the 2023 deaths of her three young children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — or whether she was not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility because of mental illness.

Sullivan gave Reddington an hour for his appeal Friday morning. The hour stretched into two before Reddington’s associate, Dana Goldblatt, was able to ask a state Supreme Judicial Court judge on a Zoom call to remove a holdout juror from the panel.

Goldblatt argued that they believe this juror is refusing to “follow what the law states.” But Supreme Judicial Court Associate Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt denied the stay.

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz will now decide whether to try Clancy again in front of a different jury, for first-degree murder or less serious charges.

Clancy had pleaded not guilty to three first-degree murder charges.

Jury deliberations

Sullivan got the first deadlock note Tuesday, the fourth day of deliberations, and dismissed the jurors after asking them to continue to work toward a verdict.

On Wednesday, the jury issued a second note saying it is “still unable to come to a unanimous decision.”

Sullivan, at that point, read the jurors what’s known as Tuey-Rodriguez instructions, which essentially asks them to give deliberations one last chance and tells them that it’s “desirable” they reach a verdict.
Under Massachusetts law, a judge can only ask a jury to keep deliberating twice, unless it consents to further deliberations. If the jury still cannot reach a unanimous verdict after the third deadlock, the judge can declare a mistrial, which Sullivan did.

The defense’s argument

Clancy’s defense argued she was not criminally responsible for the Jan. 24, 2023, killings because she was mentally ill with postpartum psychosis, a rare condition that 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.

Her attorneys argued that she had mentally deteriorated over the preceding months and, despite repeated efforts to seek psychiatric help including calling the suicide hotline, she was never properly diagnosed. Instead, she was given a spate of different medications over a matter of months to treat her symptoms or the adverse reactions to some of the medications.

The prosecution’s argument

Prosecutors argued Clancy was in full control of her faculties at the time of the killings and deliberately planned the murders. They acknowledged that she was struggling with her mental health, but claimed she manipulated her doctors and treatment and argued that she was not in psychosis at the time of the killings.

They argued she intentionally sent her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, out to pick up dinner and go to a CVS store the evening of the murders. They said she looked up how long the trip would take and called the store to make sure it had a medication in stock to buy herself enough time.

Then, Clancy methodically killed the kids one after another and then attempted suicide by throwing herself out of her second-story bedroom window, prosecutors said.

The nearly six-week trial has taken over podcasts, social media and conversations beyond the Massachusetts courtroom. Clancy, 36, has also emerged as a symbol of the gaps in maternal healthcare. (Source: NBC News)