By MICHAEL CASEY and LEAH WILLINGHAM Associated Press
PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — A judge declared a mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial on Friday after jurors said they could not reach a unanimous verdict on whether she was criminally responsible for killing her three young children.
The mistrial, on the seventh day of deliberations, leaves the case unresolved and allows prosecutors to take the 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse to trial again. Neither Clancy, her family nor the jury showed any emotion as the judge announced the mistrial.
The deliberations took a dramatic turn late in the week when Judge William Sullivan said he was going to declare a mistrial Friday before suddenly changing course and giving her defense attorney a chance to appeal to the top court in Massachusetts. The emergency appeal was quickly denied.
The trial has generated intense interest for more than a month, deeply dividing the public and drawing attention to issues around maternal mental health after childbirth. Clancy’s attorney said she was suffering from a rare condition called postpartum psychosis when she strangled her kids, the youngest just 8 months old, then tried to take her own life.
Prosecutors, who said Clancy knew what she was doing, now must decide whether to put Clancy on trial again, drop the charges or try to negotiate a plea deal with her lawyer.
Clancy, a 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse, doesn’t deny strangling her children in the basement of their home in 2023 before trying to take her own life. 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.
The prosecution argues she deliberately sent her then-husband on errands to get him out of the house, and prosecutors have questioned the seriousness of her suicide attempt.
Clancy’s livestreamed trial has generated intense interest, with reporters and spectators packing the courtroom. The case has also sparked deep public divisions over her culpability and the issues around maternal mental health after childbirth.