The jury deciding Lindsay Clancy's fate said it is deadlocked after more than 17 hours of deliberating in the Massachusetts mother's murder trial.
Around 10 a.m. ET on Sept. 1, the jury notified Judge William Sullivan that they had a question. Sullivan called the jurors and both parties back into the courtroom, where he read a note from the group of nine women and three men saying they have been unable to come to a unanimous decision.
Sullivan urged the jurors to continue deliberating, citing the extensive evidence they have to review.
"I brought you back out because I know that this was a long trial. I know there were over 80 witnesses, there were over 300 exhibits, but because of that, I'm gonna ask you to go back out, keeping in mind all of the instructions
I gave you, to go out and to continue your deliberations at this time," he said.
The case was handed to the jury on Aug. 27 after weeks of testimony. Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder in the January 2023 strangulation deaths of her three children – Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months – at the family's Duxbury, Massachusetts, home.
Prosecutors allege Clancy planned the killings by sending her husband to pick up takeout food and medicine, then, while he was gone, strangling the children with exercise bands. Afterward, Clancy cut her wrists and neck and jumped out of a second-story window, leaving her paralyzed.
Clancy is arguing that she is not guilty because she lacks criminal responsibility – more commonly known as an insanity defense. Her attorney, Kevin Reddington, cited her struggling with postpartum depression and psychosis at the time of the killings.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lindsay Clancy jury says it's deadlocked after days of deliberations
