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WARNING: This article contains details about violence against children and attempted suicide.
The judge in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial said he will be declaring a mistrial, but then did an about-face to give defence one hour to file an emergency stay.
More than an hour has already passed and the court is now breaking for lunch.
The defence’s petition will be considered by a single justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, The Associated Press reports. Reached for comment, the clerk’s office for the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts told The Associated Press that it is in the process of receiving all the documents related to the emergency appeal.
This comes as jurors on Friday reported they could not come to a unanimous decision, adding they would be unable to do so.
“It is with a heavy heart that we report we are unable to come to a unanimous decision and will not be able to,” said the note read aloud by Judge William Sullivan.
The case that has gripped the public for the past five weeks, sparking debates about maternal mental health, launching online conspiracy theories and creating dramatic moments both inside the court and out throughout the livestreamed trial.
Clancy, 36, is accused of killing her three children in 2023 while her then-husband was running an errand. Jurors in Plymouth County Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., have heard that she strangled Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and eight-month-old Callan with exercise bands in the basement of their home in the Boston suburb of Duxbury.
She then attempted to kill herself.
Clancy’s defence doesn’t dispute the killings. But they argue she isn’t criminally responsible because she had bipolar disorder and was suffering from postpartum psychosis, a rare and little-understood mental health condition that can affect a new mom’s sense of reality.
Prosecutors argue Clancy is guilty of three counts of first-degree murder because she plotted to get her husband out of the house so she could carry out the killings.
Kevin Reddington, defence attorney for Lindsay Clancy, walks through reporters and television cameras while arriving at Plymouth County Superior Court on Friday. (Charles Krupa/The Associated Press)Jury was deadlocked
Earlier on Friday, the deadlocked jury returned for a seventh day of deliberations after strict instructions from the judge to apply the rules of reasonable doubt.
“You must follow the law as I give it to you whether you agree with it or not,” Sullivan told jurors before they filed out of the courtroom.
This comes after a dramatic turn of events in court Thursday revealed a single juror as the only holdout. In a note delivered to Sullivan, the jury’s foreperson told the judge one juror among the 12 won’t follow the court’s instructions about reasonable doubt.
During Thursday’s sidebar with legal teams and eventually Clancy herself, observers noted defence attorney Kevin Reddington became heated, slamming documents down on the desk and gesticulating as he spoke to the judge. During sidebars, no one in court can hear what is being discussed.
Proceedings once again became heated on Friday, before the jury was brought in, as the lawyers and Sullivan argued about how to handle Thursday’s letter from the jury.
Prosecutors argued the jurors should be instructed to return to deliberations, while Reddington disagreed, arguing the juror in question “looked you in the eye, and lied” about following Sullivan’s instructions.
WATCH | Tempers rise as jury deadlocked:
Tempers rise on deadlocked Clancy jury as single holdout refuses to budge
After days of deadlock, frustrations are growing over a single juror’s refusal to budge in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial. The other eleven jurors say the holdout is not following instructions on determining reasonable doubt.
Every defendant is entitled to have a juror who is “true to their oath,” Reddington said.
Sullivan ultimately ruled that he will not do a further inquiry of the juror, saying he would remind them to follow the law “whether they like it not.”
In an objection, Reddington requested that Sullivan be less “soft” in his instructions, adding that he didn’t do it “forcefully” Thursday. And the exchange once again became heated.
“What do you want me to do? Get a brass band?” Sullivan said, his voice rising. “I’m not an actor. I’m just giving the instruction.”
To which Reddington suggested that Sullivan was “glossing over” the imperative to apply the law of reasonable doubt.
“I’ll try to do this with more pizazz than I did yesterday,” Sullivan added later.
If you or someone you know is struggling, here’s where to look for help: