Livestream: Lindsay Clancy trial jurors resume deliberations after reporting deadlock

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Jurors in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial will enter their fifth day of deliberations Wednesday after they reported a deadlock and were instructed to keep working toward a unanimous verdict.

As he sent the jury of nine women and three men back into deliberations Tuesday, Judge William Sullivan acknowledged the vast quantity of evidence in the case. The panel deliberated for several more hours Tuesday before asking to go home around 3:30 p.m.

“We’ll see what they do today,” defense attorney Kevin Reddington told reporters on his way into the courthouse Wednesday. “They’ve been obviously incredibly hardworking, and we’ll see how it works out today.”

Clancy, 36, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children. While she has admitted to strangling 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan at home in Duxbury on Jan. 24, 2023, Clancy has raised what is commonly known as an insanity defense as she argues she was wracked by postpartum psychosis and heard a voice in her head demanding she kill the children and herself. 

Clancy attempted suicide following the killings and remains paralyzed.

Prosecutors have disputed Clancy’s claims of auditory hallucinations and maintain she was capable of telling right from wrong, even as her mental health deteriorated in the months following the birth of her third child. They allege Clancy killed her children because she was deeply depressed and suicidal and felt they “were keeping her from ending her misery.”

As jury deliberations continue Wednesday, there are several potential outcomes on the table. If the jury remains deadlocked, Sullivan could read them a so-called “dynamite charge,” or Tuey-Rodriguez instruction, as a sort of hail-Mary attempt to break the impasse. The Tuey-Rodriguez charge essentially instructs jurors that there is no reason to believe a retrial would yield clearer evidence or a better-suited jury.

Though Clancy is charged with first-degree murder, jurors may also consider the lesser-included offenses of second-degree murder or manslaughter instead. If her insanity defense prevails and Clancy is found not guilty due to lack of criminal responsibility, she wouldn’t necessarily go free. As Sullivan told jurors last Thursday, prosecutors in those scenarios can — and often do — petition the court to have the individual committed to a mental health facility. A judge may do so if they feel the person is still mentally ill and poses a risk to themselves or others, but they can also revisit that decision during periodic reviews.

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between. She has been covering the Lindsay Clancy murder case since January 2023.