Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy triple murder trial were nearing a not guilty verdict by reason of insanity until one juror refused to agree, according to statements made by three members of the panel to NBC 10 Boston. The jury foreperson, a woman, described the panel's proximity to reaching a verdict.
"I started filling out forms, I was so excited," the foreperson told NBC 10 Boston, recounting her readiness to sign the verdict forms. "There were three forms I had to fill out and I started filing them out, I wrote my signature on each one but then he said, ‘But I’m still not going to say she’s not guilty by reason of insanity.’"
Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial on Friday after the jury sent out its third note indicating they were at an impasse. The previous day, the jury foreperson had informed the judge that a specific juror was allegedly refusing to follow legal instructions regarding reasonable doubt. This prompted the judge to question each juror individually under oath and reread his instructions on the law.
Clancy, 32, is accused of strangling her daughter Cora, 5, and son Dawson, 3, and attempting to suffocate her 8-month-old son, Callan, in their Duxbury, Massachusetts, home on Jan. 24, 2023, before jumping from a second-story window. Her defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, argued that Clancy, a former nurse, was not criminally responsible due to severe postpartum psychosis and claimed she heard a voice commanding her to kill her children. Prosecutors, however, contended that the killings were premeditated and that Clancy fabricated the auditory hallucinations and psychotic break.
