Prosecutors must decide whether to retry Lindsay Clancy, pursue a plea deal or drop the case altogether.
Prosecutor, Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer speak after mistrial declared
After seven days of deliberations, a Massachusetts judge declared a mistrial in the case of Lindsay Clancy, leaving her with an uncertain future.
After a hung jury ended Lindsay Clancy’s triple murder trial without a verdict, the nation is waiting to learn the Massachusetts mother’s fate.
Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial on Sept. 4 after the jury deliberated for more than 38 hours and failed to reach a unanimous verdict on whether Clancy is criminally responsible for the 2023 killing of her three children. A spokesperson for Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz declined to comment on next steps in the case. But after the mistrial was declared, Cruz said he will soon decide whether to try Clancy again before a new jury.
“Children were murdered and it’s our job to seek justice,” Cruz told reporters.
Days later, Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington told CBS he’s planning to present a motion to dismiss the case at the next hearing. When asked about a potential plea deal, Reddington said: “It’s up to Tim.”
“I know enough to know it doesn’t matter what I’d like,” Reddington told the outlet. “All I know is that I’m not ever going to agree this young lady do a day in jail.”
Daniel Medwed, a professor of law and criminal justice at Northeastern University, echoed Cruz’s comments, saying that prosecutors must determine what path forward will achieve justice in the case. Medwed said that could mean dropping the case altogether, but if prosecutors decide “justice would be served through a criminal prosecution, then I think the next step would be to evaluate whether to offer a plea.”
“It appears as though 11 jurors sided with the defense,” Medwed said. “And unless the prosecution thinks that they can change their strategy, sequence their witnesses differently or somehow approach it differently, there might be concerns that a conviction might not result.”
Will Lindsay Clancy be retried? What prosecutors might be considering
The questions prosecutors are considering are likely both moral and practical, Medwed said.
“Like, is this what we should do?” he said. “And then practically, what would we do differently? Is this a wise allocation of government resources?”
Medwed said among the many factors is the potential impact on the family and witnesses, though prosecutors are not bound to their wishes. An attorney for Clancy’s ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, said in a statement that “the prospect of reliving this tragedy through another trial is extraordinarily painful – for Patrick, for his family, and for all of us.”
Though a retrial would give the prosecution a chance to rework their trial strategy, the potential cost could be steep and success is not guaranteed. It cost more than $1.4 million to retry another Massachusetts woman, Karen Read, after her first murder trial ended with a hung jury, according to records released by the Norfolk District Attorney’s office. Upon retrial, Read was acquitted of the most serious charges.
It took four days of questioning to seat 18 jurors, including six alternates, in Clancy’s murder trial. Seating another jury would also likely present a significant challenge due to the intense attention the first trial received, according to Jawwaad Johnson, director of the Center for Jury Studies at the National Center for State Courts.
The case dominated headlines, generated online conspiracy theories and drew crowds outside the courthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts, including many supporters of Clancy and one woman who was accused of photographing jurors.
“It won’t be impossible, but it will be more difficult to seat a jury after a trial like this,” Johnson said. USA TODAY spoke with Johnson before the trial ended.
If second jury can’t reach a consensus, the prosecution may eventually decide not to retry the case, attorney Heather Cucolo, a New York Law School professor with expertise in criminal law, professional responsibility and mental disability law, told The Patriot Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network, prior to the announcement of the mistrial.
She said this would likely trigger civil proceedings to have Clancy involuntarily or voluntarily committed to a state hospital. While Clancy could technically be released in the meantime, Cucolo said that would be unlikely.
“Civil commitment statutes and laws do vary, but there has to be clear and convincing evidence that the individual has a mental illness and is a danger to themselves or others,” Cucolo said. “She’d have a hearing and due process within that context, and that process could begin at any time if state feels it’s warranted.”
Could lesser charges lead to a plea deal?
Prosecutors could also decide to retry Clancy or seek a plea agreement on lower charges, according to Shira Diner, a lecturer at Boston University School of Law. Clancy was charged with first-degree murder, but jurors were able to consider lesser charges including second-degree murder and manslaughter during deliberations.
Diner said if Cruz opted to retry Clancy on a less serious offense, she could request to waive her right to a jury trial and have a judge decide her fate. But Diner said the court would have to agree to the move.
“I’ve tried to do jury waive trials or asked for a jury waive trial and they wouldn’t do it,” she said. “It’s really just up to the discretion of the judge.”
Whether Cruz would consider lesser charges remains unclear, though more light could be shed at the status and trial assignment hearing set for Sept. 29. After the mistrial was declared, Cruz told reporters the evidence uncovered by the investigation into the killings warranted first-degree murder charges.
“The facts are Lindsay Clancy killed her three children and the evidence suggests to us that she was in control of her actions when she committed those homicides,” he said.
Reddington said he’s “willing to listen” to Cruz when asked about the possibility of a retrial or plea deal in an interview with “Good Morning America.”
“I hope, however, after sitting through this trial and seeing the evidence that was presented from the government as well as from the defense, that he would revisit that issue and hopefully would be able to work something out that would be acceptable to both sides,” he said.
Defense attorney Rosemary Scapicchio, who is representing Clancy in a civil lawsuit, previously told USA TODAY Cruz appears to be “hell-bent on getting three convictions for first-degree murder,” meaning the trial process could start all over again. Scapicchio’s comments came before the trial ended with a hung jury.
“He’ll do it again in a heartbeat without any reservations or hesitations because that’s who he is,” she said.
Contributing: Jessica Trufant, The Patriot Ledger; Christopher Cann and Melina Khan, USA TODAY