Clancy Jury Reports Deadlock After Four Days; Judge Orders Deliberations to Continue Wednesday

Jurors in the first-degree murder trial of Lindsay Clancy told Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan on Tuesday morning they were “unable to come to a unanimous decision” after many hours of deliberation. Audible gasps were heard in the courtroom as Sullivan read the note. He sent the panel of nine women and three men back to work, citing the length of the trial—more than 80 witnesses and about 300 exhibits—and told them to keep the instructions he had already given. They deliberated several more hours, then asked around 3:30 p.m. to go home. Sullivan thanked them for their work and ordered them to return Wednesday morning for a fifth day. Combined deliberation time stands at roughly 23 to 24 hours over four days. A deadlock note is not itself a hung jury. Massachusetts requires a unanimous verdict. Sullivan has not yet given the formal “Tuey-Rodriguez” or “dynamite” charge that tells jurors a new trial would not produce better evidence or a better-equipped panel and that they should re-examine their positions. Retired judges and lawyers said such notes are common in long, emotional cases and that a verdict remains possible.

Clancy, 36, a former labor-and-delivery nurse from Duxbury, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the Jan. 24, 2023, deaths of her children Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months. She does not contest that she strangled them with exercise bands, then slashed her wrists and neck and jumped from a second-story window. She is paralyzed from the waist down and appears in court in a wheelchair. Prosecutors argue the killings were a calculated choice after she sent her husband out for takeout and medication. The defense says she lacked criminal responsibility because of postpartum psychosis and related mental illness. Under Massachusetts law, the Commonwealth must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she could appreciate the wrongfulness of her conduct or conform it to the law. The verdict form allows first-degree murder, lesser homicide counts including manslaughter, or a finding of not criminally responsible. If jurors deadlock only on first-degree murder they can still return a unanimous verdict on a lesser charge. A complete inability to agree on any count can produce a hung jury and a mistrial. Prosecutors, led by Plymouth District Attorney Tim Cruz, would then decide whether to retry her; defense attorney Kevin Reddington said Tuesday that Cruz “will never drop it” and that he would return for a second trial. Clancy has been held at Tewksbury State Hospital and would remain there pending any new proceeding. There is no fixed time limit on deliberations. The jury is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday.