PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial said for a second time they were unable to reach a verdict on whether she is criminally responsible in the killings of her three children, but the judge on Wednesday told them again to keep trying.
Clancy stared at the jury with no expression as Judge William Sullivan explained to the courtroom that jurors were at an impasse on their fifth day of deliberations.
The judge then sent them back out after giving them a standard, legally required instruction intended to prod them to keep discussing a possible verdict. He gave them similar instructions Tuesday morning the first time they said they couldn't reach a unanimous decision.
Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse in Massachusetts, doesn't deny strangling her three children in their home in 2023. But her attorney argues that postpartum psychosis led to her actions. Prosecutors say she knew what she was doing.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.
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The jury resumed deliberations Wednesday but not before the judge questioned jurors one by one following the arrest of a woman accused of filming them as they left the courthouse the previous day.
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.
What happens if there’s a mistrial
Jurors have heard testimony from relatives and doctors about how Clancy's mental health declined in the months before the killings and how her treatment included several medications and a short stay in a psychiatric hospital. Medical experts hired by the prosecution and the defense reached sharply different conclusions about her psychiatric state when she killed the children.
If jurors ultimately can’t agree on a verdict, the judge could declare a mistrial. Prosecutors would then have to decide whether to put Clancy on trial again, drop the charges or try to negotiate a plea deal with her lawyer.
If the jury decides Clancy was criminally responsible for her actions, it could convict her of either murder or manslaughter. If she is acquitted, a judge could still order her confined to a mental health facility if an evaluation determines that she poses a danger to the public.
After court ended Tuesday, Clancy’s attorney said it was a good sign that the jury kept working.
“The fact that they have not said that they’re done is very, very heartening,” Kevin Reddington said. “Obviously, they’re working very hard.”
What happened on the night of the killings
Clancy strangled the children with exercise bands in their home's basement, then jumped from a second-floor window. She remains paralyzed from the waist down. Her lawyers say she heard a voice telling her to kill the children so she could end her own life.
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. Patrick Clancy has said in interviews that he forgives his ex-wife, whom he viewed as ill rather than evil.
Woman arrested outside court says she was trying to photograph Clancy, not the jury
Dawn Light, 56, of Sutton, Massachusetts, was arraigned 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 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.
Police searched the woman's phone for video of the jury
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.
The jury resumes deliberations a day after the courthouse arrest
Sullivan opened Wednesday’s proceedings with a warning to the courtroom about following his orders.
“Everybody should be well aware that the order and that statute is being enforced,” he said.
The order bars people from photographing or filming a jury until the case ends, and prohibits anyone from following, contacting, harassing or tampering with a jury.
Clancy’s lawyer told The Associated Press that the judge called jurors up one by one to ask them if there was anything they saw that would affect their ability to be impartial. The judge’s questions could not be heard from the gallery and he didn't disclose what he asked.
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This story has been updated to correct that Clancy’s attorney clarified that the judge asked jurors about their impartiality, not the woman’s arrest.
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Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed.
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