By Aaron Miller-
A Massachusetts judge has declared a mistrial in the case of Lindsay Clancy, the former neonatal and delivery nurse accused of killing her three young children, after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict following more than 38 hours of deliberations.
The 12-member jury, comprising nine women and three men, had spent a week considering the charges against the 36-year-old mother after a trial lasting several weeks that drew widespread attention to postpartum mental illness and the question of criminal responsibility. According to notes sent to the court, the jury was divided 11 to one. A note from jurors said they remained ‘deadlocked with a heavy heart’
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Judge William Sullivan declared the mistrial after the jury returned to court for a third time without a verdict today. The decision came after Clancy’s defence team made an unsuccessful last-minute attempt to prevent the mistrial by asking the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to intervene.
Clancy’s lead lawyer, Kevin Reddington, sought an emergency stay, and argued that the judge should further question the juror who was preventing a unanimous verdict. The defence claimed the juror was biased and unwilling to follow the court’s instructions on the legal standard of reasonable doubt.
The emergency petition argued that a mistrial could be avoided, if the court determined that the juror was unable to follow those instructions and, if necessary, removed the juror from further deliberations. The petition also alleged that the trial court had demonstrated a bias against people suffering from severe mental illness. It argued that mental illness was a protected category under the US Constitution, and accused the court of failing in its responsibility to preserve the integrity of the jury.
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Clancy disappointed in news of mistrial
The application was considered during a public Zoom hearing before Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt. Prosecutors outlined the repeated jury notes indicating that the panel remained deadlocked, while the defence argued that the state’s highest court had the authority to direct the trial judge to question the disputed juror. Justice Wendlandt ultimately declined to grant the requested relief, leaving the mistrial in place.
Clancy had been accused of killing her children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan, at the family’s home in Duxbury on 24 January 2023. Prosecutors alleged that she strangled the children with exercise bands after sending her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, out of the house to collect food and medication.
The prosecution argued that Clancy deliberately created a period in which she could carry out the killings without interruption. In opening arguments, prosecutors characterised the deaths as carefully planned, and said Clancy had acted with deliberate premeditation and extreme cruelty after ensuring that the children’s father was away from the house.
The defence did not dispute that Clancy killed her children. Instead, her not-guilty plea rested on a claim that she was not criminally responsible because she was suffering from severe postpartum psychiatric illness at the time.
Her lawyers argued that Clancy was experiencing postpartum psychosis, including auditory hallucinations that commanded her to harm her children, as well as previously undiagnosed bipolar disorder. They said she had suffered severe depression and anxiety following the birth of Callan and had been prescribed a succession of medications for anxiety and sleep.
The defence also argued that some of the medications may have worsened her psychiatric symptoms. Clancy had sought psychiatric treatment in the weeks before the killings, but her lawyers maintained that the seriousness of her condition had not been properly recognised or treated.
Under Massachusetts law, a defendant can be held criminally responsible only if they retained substantial capacity to understand the wrongfulness or criminality of their conduct and to conform their behaviour to the requirements of the law. The central issue at trial was therefore not whether Clancy had caused the deaths, but whether her mental state deprived her of the criminal responsibility required for a conviction.
Among those who testified during the trial were Patrick Clancy, Clancy’s mother and aunt, treating physicians and several mental health experts. The defence called forensic psychiatrist Dr Phillip Resnick, who testified that Clancy was suffering from severe depression and had experienced escalating anxiety after the birth of her children.
Resnick told the court that Clancy was experiencing psychosis at the time of the killings and described her as “frankly psychotic” on the day her children died.
The prosecution pointed to evidence that they said demonstrated planning and awareness. They argued that Clancy’s decision to send her husband out of the house created an opportunity to carry out the killings and undermined the defence claim that she lacked the capacity to understand or control her actions.
With the mistrial now declared, prosecutors have the option of bringing Clancy back to court for a new trial. A status conference has been scheduled for 29 September, when the next steps are expected to be discussed. Judge Sullivan indicated that, should the case be retried, he would prefer for the proceedings to take place in the autumn.
Outside the courthouse, Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz described the trial as an emotional experience for everyone involved and said the prosecution’s priority remained securing justice for the three children.
“This was and has always been about getting justice for those three little babies,” Cruz said. “We’re here at this courthouse today because those children are not.”
Reddington, meanwhile, defended his client and expressed frustration over the jury’s failure to reach a verdict. He praised Clancy for enduring the lengthy proceedings and criticised the juror who, according to the defence, remained opposed to the majority position.
The mistrial does not resolve the question of Clancy’s criminal responsibility. Instead, it leaves prosecutors with the decision of whether to pursue the case again, potentially subjecting both sides to another lengthy trial over one of the most closely watched US cases involving postpartum mental illness and criminal responsibility.
The criminal proceedings are also expected to be followed by a separate civil lawsuit brought by Lindsay and Patrick Clancy against healthcare providers who treated her. The former couple allege that medical and mental health professionals committed malpractice by failing to properly diagnose, treat and monitor what they describe as a severe postpartum psychiatric condition.
The case has continued to attract national attention because of the difficult questions it raises about maternal mental health, the limits of criminal responsibility and whether a woman suffering from severe postpartum psychosis can be held legally accountable for actions committed while in that state. After formally dismissing the jury, Judge Sullivan thanked its members for the time and emotional burden they had taken on during the trial.
“Each one of you knew how long the case was going to go. You knew how difficult the case was going to be to listen to facts-wise, but still, you braced for that duty,” Sullivan said.
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