A Massachusetts judge has given jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial a Tuey-Rodriguez charge after they reported being unable to reach a unanimous verdict for a second time.
Judge William Sullivan instructed the jury to continue deliberations, a step often taken before a judge declares a mistrial due to a hung jury. The Tuey-Rodriguez charge, unique to Massachusetts, is intended to encourage deadlocked juries to continue deliberating without coercing a verdict. It advises jurors to re-examine their views with an open mind and consider their colleagues' perspectives while maintaining their own honestly held beliefs.
This instruction is named after two Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decisions. In Commonwealth v. Tuey (1851), the court approved an instruction encouraging deadlocked jurors to reconsider their views. More than a century later, in Commonwealth v. Rodriguez (1973), the court revised the language to create a more neutral instruction that asks all jurors to carefully consider each other's views while preserving their own convictions.
Clancy is accused of killing her three children, Cora, Dawson, and Callan, in their Duxbury, Massachusetts, home in January 2023. Her defense argues she was not criminally responsible due to postpartum psychosis, while prosecutors contend she was legally sane and intentionally planned the killings.
Retired Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Thomas Drechsler explained that the charge is typically given after a judge determines the jury has deliberated thoroughly but remains deadlocked. He noted that while the instruction encourages jurors to rethink their positions in light of others' views, it also reminds them that they are best positioned to decide the case having heard all the evidence. Drechsler added that if jurors remain deadlocked after receiving the charge, the likelihood of a mistrial increases, though juries have been known to reach verdicts after its delivery.
If the jury cannot reach a unanimous verdict after further deliberations, Judge Sullivan could declare a mistrial. The decision to pursue a new trial would then fall to the prosecutors.