Lindsay Clancy trial jury set to deliberate for fifth day after telling
judge they were deadlocked
[September 02, 2026]
By MICHAEL CASEY
PLYMOUTH,
Mass. (AP) — Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial were set to
resume deliberations Wednesday, a day after telling the judge they
couldn’t agree on whether she was criminally responsible for killing her
three children.
On Tuesday
morning, the jury, then in its fourth day of deliberations, sent Judge
William Sullivan a note saying it had been unable to reach a unanimous
decision, which is required by law for either a conviction or an
acquittal. Sullivan told the jurors to keep trying — a common
instruction in criminal trials when juries indicate they are having
trouble reaching a verdict. |
Lindsay Clancy looks to her lawyer Kevin Reddington as the jury keeps
deliberating at her murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth,
Mass., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP,
Pool) |
|
After deliberating in private for the rest of the day, the jury
asked at around 3:30 p.m. to go home and resume deliberations in
the morning.
Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, doesn’t deny
strangling her children, but she says postpartum psychosis led
to her actions. Prosecutors argue that she knew what she was
doing. Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of
criminal responsibility.
Jurors heard testimony from relatives and doctors about how her
mental health declined in the months before the killings and how
her treatment included several medications and a short stay in a
psychiatric hospital. Medical experts hired by the prosecution
and the defense reached sharply different conclusions about her
psychiatric state when she killed the children.
If jurors ultimately can’t agree on a verdict, the judge could
declare a mistrial. Prosecutors would then have to decide
whether to put Clancy on trial again, drop the charges or try to
negotiate a plea deal with her lawyer.
After court ended Tuesday, Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington,
said he saw it as a good sign that the jury kept working.
“The fact that they have not said that they’re done is very,
very heartening,” he said. “Obviously, they’re working very
hard.”
If the jury decides Clancy was criminally responsible for her
actions, it could convict her of either murder or manslaughter.
If she is acquitted, a judge could still order her confined to a
mental health facility if an evaluation determines that she
poses a danger to the public.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights
reserved |
|
|
