The high-profile murder trial of Lindsay Clancy concluded Friday with a mistrial after jurors indicated they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan declared the mistrial after receiving a third note from the jury detailing their impasse.
Clancy, 36, was on trial for the alleged strangulation deaths of her three young children: Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, on January 24, 2023. Jurors deliberated for over 38 hours across seven days but remained deadlocked on whether to convict Clancy.
Clancy's defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, made an eleventh-hour attempt to block the mistrial declaration. He requested the judge grant a one-hour stay to file an emergency appeal with the state Supreme Court. Judge Sullivan reluctantly agreed, but the appeal was ultimately unsuccessful.
During the trial, Reddington argued that Clancy should not be held criminally responsible due to severe postpartum psychosis. He presented evidence that she was hallucinating a voice that instructed her to kill her children and then herself.
Earlier in the week, the jury had sent out two prior notes indicating they were at an impasse. The judge had instructed them to continue deliberations. On Thursday, the foreperson wrote a note suggesting one holdout juror was refusing to follow the law regarding reasonable doubt. Judge Sullivan questioned all jurors individually and collectively to assess their ability to follow his instructions on reasonable doubt before he was compelled to declare a mistrial.