Mistrial declared in Massachusetts nurse Lindsay Clancy case after jury deadlock

The jury in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy could not reach a unanimous verdict, and Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial on Friday after seven days of deliberations. Clancy, a 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse, remains held at a psychiatric hospital while prosecutors decide whether to retry the case.

The deadlock followed repeated notes from jurors saying they were unable to agree on whether Clancy was criminally responsible for strangling her three children, Cora, Dawson and Callan, ages 5, 3 and 8 months, at the family's Duxbury home in January 2023. According to the Associated Press, the jury first reported an impasse on Tuesday, the fourth day of deliberations, and again on Wednesday. The judge gave the panel a legal instruction known as a Tuey-Rodriguez charge on Wednesday, urging them to continue trying to reach a verdict.

On Friday, the jury sent a note saying that "with a heavy heart" it was still deadlocked, according to WHEC. Clancy's lawyer, Kevin Reddington, then sought an emergency appeal to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, arguing that a holdout juror was refusing to follow the law. The appeal was denied, and Sullivan declared the mistrial.

Under Massachusetts law, a judge can ask a jury to keep deliberating only twice unless the jury consents to further deliberation. The jury had already reported deadlock three times.

Clancy does not deny killing her children but argues that postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness that can follow childbirth, left her unable to understand the wrongfulness of her actions. Her defense presented testimony that she heard a voice telling her to kill the children and then herself, and that she had sought psychiatric help in the months before the killings. Prosecutors argued that Clancy planned the murders, deliberately sending her then-husband on errands to get him out of the house.

After the killings, Clancy jumped from a second-story window and was left paralyzed from the waist down. She has been held at a psychiatric hospital since her arrest.

The mistrial leaves the case in limbo. The Plymouth County District Attorney's office could retry Clancy, drop the charges, or negotiate a plea deal. Boston defense attorney Brad Bailey, who is not involved in the case, told the Associated Press that prosecutors sometimes decide not to retry a case after a hung jury because of the expense and the likelihood of another deadlock.

If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life in prison. If acquitted, a judge could still order her confined to a mental health facility if she is deemed a danger to the public.