Lindsay Clancy jury split as holdout dispute raises mistrial risk

Plymouth,UPDATED: Sep 4, 2026 03:36 IST

A jury in the trial of Lindsay Clancy went home without a verdict on Thursday after a sixth day of deliberations that took a dramatic turn, with the foreperson telling the judge that one juror would not follow the court's instructions on reasonable doubt. The jury is due to return on Friday to continue trying to reach a decision on whether the Massachusetts mother is criminally responsible for the deaths of her three children.

The development came as the defence asked the judge to remove a juror after heated discussions in court, a request that was rejected. Clancy, a 36-year-old former labour and delivery nurse, does not deny strangling her children in the basement of the family's home in 2023 before trying to take her own life. Her lawyer says postpartum psychosis drove her actions, while prosecutors say she knew what she was doing when she killed Cora, Dawson and Callan Clancy, aged 5, 3 and 8 months.

Details of what happened in the jury room were not disclosed by the judge and were discussed only briefly in open court, but the note raised the possibility that a single holdout juror could be blocking a verdict. The trial, which has been livestreamed, has drawn heavy public attention, with reporters and spectators filling the courtroom, and has also led to debate over Clancy's culpability and maternal mental health after childbirth.

The jury had already twice told the judge it could not agree on a verdict, but Thursday marked the first sign of possible tension inside the deliberation room. Clancy's lawyer Kevin Reddington told the court that the foreperson had complained that one juror was refusing to listen to the law on reasonable doubt. After receiving the note, Judge William Sullivan called each juror in one by one and questioned them privately. He then repeated his instructions on reasonable doubt and sent them back to continue deliberating.

Reddington told the judge the juror should have been dismissed. "If we come back here in a half-hour with a mistrial because of a juror that has just spurned the instructions of this court, it's a shame - it's a real shame," he said, referring to the possibility of a deadlocked jury. Outside the courthouse later, he said the juror would be questioned again on Friday and added, "There's a person who has doubt but will not listen to the judge's instructions." Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague said Sullivan's response was appropriate and that no further action was needed.

Sullivan said removing a juror during deliberations was a sensitive step. "I don't feel it is proper for me to side with one side or the other of the deliberations," the judge said. "I don't feel it's appropriate for me to say, 'I agree with one juror or the 11.' I have asked if they are able to follow my instructions. They swore earlier that they could." At one point, for the first time during the trial, Clancy was brought to a sidebar with the judge. Paralysed from the waist down after her suicide attempt, she uses a wheelchair, which Reddington pushed to the front of the courtroom. "She has a right to know what's going on," he later told reporters.

Signs of a possible hung jury had surfaced on Wednesday when Sullivan told the courtroom that jurors were stuck for a second time. He instructed them not to give up their own convictions simply to reach a verdict, but asked them to seriously consider opposing views and reassess their positions if appropriate. If the jury cannot agree, the judge could declare a mistrial. Prosecutors would then have to decide whether to try Clancy again, drop the charges or seek a plea deal.

If jurors find Clancy criminally responsible, they could convict her of murder or manslaughter. If she is acquitted, a judge could still order her to be confined to a mental health facility if an evaluation finds she poses a danger to the public. Reddington said on Thursday that Clancy has received letters of support "from all over the world" and added, "It's just amazing. She reads them all."

Jurors have heard evidence from relatives and doctors about Clancy's declining mental health in the months before the killings, including treatment with several medicines and a short stay in a psychiatric hospital. Experts called by the prosecution and the defence gave sharply different views on her psychiatric condition at the time of the killings. Patrick Clancy has said in interviews that he forgives his now ex-wife and sees her as ill, not evil. The defence says Clancy heard a voice telling her to kill the children so she could end her own life. Prosecutors say she deliberately sent her then husband out on errands to get him out of the house and have questioned how serious her suicide attempt was.

As the jury prepares to return on Friday, the case remains unresolved, with the latest dispute in the jury room adding to the possibility of a mistrial in a closely watched trial centred on Clancy's mental state and legal responsibility for the deaths of her three children.

With PTI Inputs

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