The judge in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three young children, plans to declare a mistrial after the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict and remained deadlocked after a week of deliberations.
Jurors in Plymouth state court spent more than ۳۸ hours in deliberations over the charges against the ۳۶-year-old mom, which came on the heels of a weeks-long trial that directed national attention to maternal mental health issues that can occur postpartum.
After the jury returned without a verdict for the third time, Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial but was intercepted by a last-minute request from Clancy’s lead defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, who requested one hour to petition for an emergency stay to seek relief from a superior court judge.
Clancy, a former neonatal and delivery nurse, had been accused of strangling her three children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months, in the family’s Duxbury home in January ۲۰۲۳.
Prosecutors argued in opening statements that Clancy had “coldly and efficiently executed” her children, doing so with “no hesitation, with deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity and cruelty” after she “drew her husband out of the house, their father, so that she had the opportunity and the time to carry out these murders”.
But Clancy’s defense team argued she was “suffering from psychosis” when she killed her children and allegedly attempted suicide by jumping from an upper window in her home, which left her partially paralyzed. Reddington told jurors that Clancy suffered from postpartum depression after giving birth to her third child, Callan, and been prescribed a cocktail of medications.
“This is a young woman who, with her husband, tried very hard to get the help she needed,” he said.
Clancy has not denied that she had killed her children but her not guilty plea was predicated on a lack of criminal responsibility because, as her defense team said, she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, which included auditory hallucinations that commanded her to harm her children, and undiagnosed bipolar disorder.
Under Massachusetts law, the defendant must have “retained the substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness or criminality of their conduct and to conform their conduct to the requirements of the law” in order to be found guilty.
Throughout the trial, jurors heard from Clancy’s former husband Patrick Clancy, her mother and aunt, and an array of psychologists and treating physicians. The court heard that Clancy had been prescribed ۱۳ different medications for anxiety and sleep, which the defense said may have exacerbated her symptoms of depression.
Clancy had checked herself into psychiatric clinic in the weeks before the killings. Later, on ۲۴ January ۲۰۲۳, she had sent her then husband out for food and to collect pharmacy medications. In that time, police say she strangled their children with exercise bands. Her ability to orchestrate a window of time to carry out the killings, prosecutors argued, was evidence of premeditation.
Before resting his case last week, Reddington called forensic psychiatrist Dr Phillip Resnick to testify that Clancy had “severe depression” and a history of anxiety, which increased after the birth of her children to the point that she “felt she couldn’t function”.
“At the time of the crime on Jan ۲۴, ۲۰۲۳, Ms Clancy was frankly psychotic,” Resnick said. “She was clearly psychotic on that day.”
After the potential declaration of Clancy’s mistrial, prosecutors have the option of trying her again.
Clancy’s criminal trial will be followed by a civil claim brought by both Lindsay and Patrick Clancy against her medical and mental healthcare providers. The former couple claim the providers committed medical malpractice by failing to properly diagnose, treat and monitor her severe postpartum psychiatric condition.
