The jury in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial on Wednesday told the judge for a second time that it can’t agree on a verdict in the controversial case of the mother accused of murdering her three children.
The jury were then sent back for more deliberations but if they remain deadlocked for a third time a mistrial is set to be called in the high-profile case.
Earlier deliberations had resumed for a fifth day after the judge questioned jurors one by one following the arrest of a woman accused of filming them as they left the courthouse on Tuesday.
A former labor and delivery nurse, Clancy doesn’t deny strangling her three young children at the family’s Massachusetts home in ۲۰۲۳, but she says postpartum psychosis led to her actions. Prosecutors argue that she knew what she was doing. Clancy, ۳۶, has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility.
Dawn Light, ۵۶, of Sutton, Massachusetts, was arraigned on Wednesday at the same courthouse in Plymouth, south of Boston. Surrounded by reporters while going to her car, Light was asked why she filmed outside the courthouse on Tuesday.
“To see Lindsay. And I did see her. She was getting picked up by the van,” Light said.
Light’s attorney, Jennifer White, called it a “misunderstanding” and said Light, a retired nurse, was only trying to take a photo of Clancy and “not interact with the jurors”.
Light described herself as a “crime junkie” and Clancy supporter, in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media Group before her arraignment.
She was charged with intimidation of a witness, jurors or person furnishing information in connection with criminal proceedings. A not guilty plea was entered on her behalf, and she was released without having to post bail but was ordered to stay away from the court, the jurors and any witnesses.
Assistant district attorney Nicole Piacentini said Light was parked in a restricted area behind the courthouse and is accused of filming the jurors as they left court. Light told state police that she was waiting to film Clancy and denied recording jurors, however, troopers found video of jurors in her phone’s deleted files folder, Piacentini said.
“The sanctity of the judicial system is at risk because of her actions,” Piacentini told a judge during the arraignment.
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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.
The jurors had told Judge William Sullivan on Tuesday for the first time that they were unable to reach a unanimous decision, but he instructed them to keep trying – a common instruction in criminal trials when juries say they are having trouble reaching a verdict.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
