Watch Lindsay Clancy jury tell judge they are deadlocked
The jury in Lindsay Clancy’s Massachusetts murder trial reported it is deadlocked after 17 hours of deliberations.
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Jurors in the triple murder trial of Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy must continue deliberations after the judge made a last ditch attempt to break their deadlock on Sept. 2.
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. The jury began deliberating on Aug. 27 after hearing weeks of testimony from more than 80 witnesses.
Around 10 a.m. ET on Sept. 1, the group of nine women and three men notified Judge William Sullivan they have not been able to reach a unanimous decision. Sullivan urged them to continue deliberating, and they did so until 3:30 p.m. ET when they asked to leave early for the day.
But after deliberating until nearly 2:30 p.m. ET on Sept. 2, the jury informed Sullivan that they were still at an impasse. Sullivan gave them what’s known as a Tuey-Rodriguez charge, a special set of instructions similar to an Allen charge. The instructions, which were refined in and named for two Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court cases, ask jurors on each side to rethink their position and “consider that it is desirable that the case be decided.”
“You have been selected in the same manner, and from the same source, as any future jury would be,” Sullivan said. “There is no reason to suppose that the case will ever be submitted to twelve persons who are more intelligent, more impartial, or more competent to decide it or that more or clearer evidence will be produced.”
Daniel Medwed, a professor of law and criminal justice at Northeastern University, told USA TODAY the message is sometimes called a “dynamite instruction” because the forceful language is intended to break the deadlock.
“It really is designed to encourage the jury to take one last look at things and really try,” Medwed said.
Prosecutors allege Clancy planned the killings by sending her husband out on errands and then strangling the children with exercise bands while he was gone. Clancy then cut her wrists and neck and jumped out of a second-story window, leaving her paralyzed.
Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, has not denied that she killed her children but has argued she is not guilty of murder because she lacks criminal responsibility – more commonly known as an insanity defense. Reddington said she was struggling with postpartum depression and psychosis at the time of the killings.
The Lindsay Clancy jury is deadlocked again. What happens next?
If the jury cannot come to a unanimous consensus about Clancy’s guilt after more deliberations, the judge will declare a mistrial. Prosecutors will then have to decide whether to retry Clancy in front of a new jury.
Reddington told reporters outside the courthouse he expected prosecutors to bring charges against Clancy again in the event of a mistrial.
“Tim Cruz will never drop it, that’s for sure,” Reddington said, referring to Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz.
That’s what happened when another recent high-profile murder case in Massachusetts ended with a hung jury.
Jurors deliberating the fate of Karen Read following the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, twice told Judge Beverly Cannone they were unable to reach a verdict. After getting the Tuey-Rodriguez instruction, the jury remained deadlocked and Cannone declared a mistrial in July 2024.
Prosecutors decided to retry Read, and she was acquitted of the most serious charges, second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death, by a new jury in June 2025.
Deliberations resume after jury intimidation arrest
The beginning of deliberations on Sept. 2 was delayed slightly as the judge appeared to address the arrest of a woman who allegedly took video of jurors outside the courthouse.
Dawn Light, 56, was arrested around 3:40 p.m. on Sept. 1 and charged with one count of intimidation of a witness, jurors, or person furnishing information in connection with criminal proceedings, according to state police.
During Light’s arraignment on Sept. 2, a prosecutor said state police who were providing security during the Clancy trial were notified about a person in a restricted area outside the courthouse and encountered Light in her vehicle in a parking lot. Light denied taking any photos in the area, but when officers looked through her phone, they found video of jurors exiting the building that had been recently deleted.
An attorney representing Light said the incident was a misunderstanding and that the retired registered nurse was trying to get a picture of Clancy, not the jury. A not guilty plea was entered on Light’s behalf, and she was ordered to return on Oct. 15 for a pretrial hearing.
Sullivan began proceedings in the Clancy trial on Sept. 2 by reminding spectators that there are court orders in place, as well as state statutes that relate to jurors, witnesses and attorneys.
“Everyone should be well aware that that order and that statute is being enforced and will be enforced,” Sullivan said. “I just want to put that out there without editorial comment.”
Sullivan then spoke to jurors individually at sidebar in the presence of the attorneys before allowing them to resume deliberations around 9:30 a.m. ET.
What verdicts is the jury considering in the Lindsay Clancy trial?
There are several options on the verdict slip in the Clancy trial:
- Not guilty
- Not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility
- Guilty of murder in the first degree
- Guilty of murder in the second degree
- Guilty of manslaughter
If the jury finds Lindsay Clancy guilty, it must also determine what degree of murder she should be convicted of.
The degree of the murder conviction would impact the length of a prison sentence; if she is convicted of first-degree murder, it carries a mandatory life sentence in Massachusetts.
If the jury finds her not guilty or lacking criminal responsibility, under Massachusetts law, the sentence typically requires the defendant to undergo a mental evaluation and likely a commitment to a state hospital for treatment.
Clancy has been held at Tewksbury Hospital, a facility in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, for court-ordered mental health treatment since May 2023.
Contributing: Jessica Trufant and Brad Petrishen, The Patriot Ledger