PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial returned to the courthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on Thursday for a sixth day of deliberation after twice saying they can’t agree whether the former labor and delivery nurse is criminally responsible for killing her three young children.
If jurors ultimately cannot agree on a verdict, the judge could declare a mistrial.
While both sides agree she killed her children, Clancy’s defense
team argued she suffered from postpartum psychosis, with defense attorney Kevin Reddington stating that “lousy medical care” exacerbated her condition. Prosecutors at the Plymouth County District Attorney’s office argued she intentionally planned the killings and that the nation’s health care system was “not on trial here.”
Postpartum psychosis is estimated to afflict 1 to 2 per 1,000 women after delivery. Experts at the Cleveland Clinic describe it as a mental health emergency affecting someone’s sense of reality. It can happen to anyone after giving birth, but the chances are higher for people with certain mental health conditions. Though most people with postpartum psychosis don’t harm their children, mothers with severe cases may try to do so, and may also try to harm themselves.
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Judge William Sullivan brought the 12 jurors and six alternates into the courtroom briefly before sending them back to the deliberation room.
If a verdict cannot be reached, a mistrial will be declared, and the case essentially goes back to the same status as before the trial, with Clancy charged with murder and held at a psychiatric hospital awaiting a resolution of the criminal case.
Prosecutors will decide whether to try again with a new jury. If they do, the jury selection process will begin again, and a new trial will be scheduled.
Prosecutors could also offer a plea deal to Clancy, said Brad Bailey, a Boston defense attorney and former prosecutor who is not involved in the case.
“Any time the threat of a retrial with murder one hanging over the client is re-interjected, defense lawyers will, at the very least, explore whether or not there’s any interest in a resolution,” Bailey said.
Postpartum psychosis is estimated to afflict only 1 to 2 per 1,000 women after delivery. Experts at the Cleveland Clinic describe it as a mental health emergency affecting someone’s sense of reality.
It can happen to anyone after giving birth, but the chances are higher for people with certain mental health conditions. In a journal article on the subject in 2023, researchers at the Medical University of Lublin in Poland said about half of people with postpartum psychosis have a previous history of psychiatric problems and the most common risk factor associated with the condition is bipolar affective disorder, which causes extreme mood swings.
Though most people with postpartum psychosis don’t harm their children, mothers with severe cases may try to do so, and also may try to harm themselves.
Experts say it’s important to seek immediate help if you or your partner or family member show signs of postpartum psychosis.
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Dawn Light, 56, was arraigned on an intimidation charge Wednesday at the same courthouse as Clancy’s trial. Authorities say she filmed jurors leaving the courthouse a day earlier.
Light, a retired nurse and Clancy supporter, told reporters she was there: “To see Lindsay. And I did see her. She was getting picked up by the van.”
Her lawyer Jennifer White called it a “misunderstanding.”
A not-guilty plea was entered on Light’s behalf and she was ordered to stay away from the court, jurors and witnesses.
The arrest prompted the judge to ask each juror Wednesday if they saw anything that would affect their impartiality, Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington told The Associated Press. The judge also opened the day’s proceedings with a warning that he had issued an order governing how people should conduct themselves at the courthouse. That order barred people from filming, following, contacting or tampering with jurors.
On Wednesday, the jury sent the court a note saying it couldn’t unanimously agree on a verdict, despite days of trying. The jury had sent a similar note Tuesday morning. Neither note revealed anything about how the jury might be split or said anything about the tone of deliberations.
Sullivan then gave the jury a legal instruction sometimes known as a “dynamite charge” because it is intended to help a jury break through an impasse.
He told the jurors not to abandon their own convictions just to reach a verdict, but urged them to seriously consider opposing views and reassess their positions if appropriate. No one knows, he added, whether another jury would be “more intelligent, more impartial or more competent to decide it than you are.”
Such instructions are common in many states and the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld their constitutionality, but they are barred in some states because of concerns they might be coercive.
Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial will return for a sixth day of deliberations after twice saying they couldn’t agree whether the Massachusetts mother is criminally responsible for killing her three young children.
The judge told jurors to keep deliberating Wednesday when they said for a second straight day that they were at an impasse — a sign there’s a growing chance of a hung jury and the trial ending without a resolution.
Clancy, a 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse, doesn’t deny strangling her children in the basement of their home in 2023. Her attorney argues that postpartum psychosis led to her actions, while prosecutors say she knew what she was doing when she killed Cora, Dawson and Callan Clancy, ages 5, 3 and 8 months.
“I know it’s been a long day,” Judge William Sullivan said, “so at this point, what I’m going to do is, first off, thank you for your time and commitment to this case. I’m going to ask you to come back tomorrow morning.”
Clancy stared at the jury with no expression when Sullivan earlier in the day explained to the courtroom that the jurors were at a standstill.
