Lindsay Clancy Murder Trial Ends in Mistrial After Jury Deadlocks, but Judge Grants 1-Hour Stay

The murder trial of Lindsay Clancy has hit an unexpected stopping point. After roughly 36 hours of deliberations, the jury told the court for a third time Friday that it could not reach a verdict in the deaths of Clancy’s three children.

Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial at about 11:25 a.m. Friday in Plymouth Superior Court in Massachusetts. But before the jury could even return to the courtroom for the formal declaration, Clancy’s attorney made one last attempt to keep the case from reaching that point.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington asked Sullivan to pause the mistrial so he could file an emergency appeal with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the state’s highest court. The judge granted the request, giving Reddington one hour to file the petition.

For the moment, that means the jury is sitting in the jury room waiting. Jurors reportedly have not been told why their return to the courtroom has been delayed.

Why the Jury Couldn’t Reach a Verdict

The deadlock comes after a trial focused heavily on Clancy’s mental state when her three children died at the family’s Duxbury home in January 2023.

Clancy pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the deaths of 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan. Prosecutors argued that she deliberately killed the children and understood that what she was doing was wrong.

The defense has taken a different position. Reddington has acknowledged that Clancy killed her children but argued that she should not be held criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and had been overmedicated.

That specific point became a major part of the trial. Whether Clancy’s mental state meant she could understand the nature of what she was doing and whether she could appreciate that it was wrong.

Now, after more than a day of deliberations, the jury has been unable to agree.

Reddington’s emergency petition to the Supreme Judicial Court is essentially a last-minute effort to prevent the mistrial from becoming official. He argues that there are structural issues with the case, including the court’s handling of a holdout juror.

Sullivan gave the defense until roughly 12:30 p.m. Friday to file the appeal. If the state’s highest court does not intervene, the judge will formally declare the mistrial with the jury present.

So while Sullivan has already announced the mistrial, the case technically isn’t quite at its final stopping point yet. The next hour could determine whether the court moves forward with the mistrial or whether Clancy’s defense gets another chance to challenge how the trial was handled.

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]