{"id":614462,"date":"2026-09-04T17:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T17:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/614462\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T17:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T17:06:13","slug":"lindsay-clancy-trial-judge-says-he-has-no-choice-but-to-declare-mistrial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/614462\/","title":{"rendered":"Lindsay Clancy trial: Judge says he has ‘no choice’ but to declare mistrial"},"content":{"rendered":"

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LAST UPDATE
\n |
\n 1 hr ago\n <\/p>\n

THE JUDGE PRESIDING over the trial of Lindsay said he doesn\u2019t feel he has \u201cany choice\u201d but to declare a mistrial on day seven of jury deliberations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe jury did not ask to be sent back, which would be a possibility if they had requested to be sent back to them, but under the statute and the case law, I don\u2019t feel I have any choice but to declare mistrial,\u201d Judge William Sullivan told the court.<\/p>\n

He then put his decision on hold to allow the defence to appeal the decision, giving one hour to allow Clancy\u2019s lawyer to file an appeal with a higher court.<\/p>\n

The dramatic developments came after the jury sent a note to the judge Friday morning saying that it was with a \u201cheavy heart\u201d that they were unable to reach a verdict in the case, which has cast a spotlight on maternal mental health.<\/p>\n

To reach a verdict, all 12 jurors must be in agreement.<\/p>\n

The jury has been deadlocked 11-1 and yesterday her defence counsel sought to have the single juror removed saying that the foreperson of the jury indicated in a note that the holdout juror\u00a0\u201dmade statements acknowledging doubt but refuses to apply it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forbes Breaking News<\/a> \/ YouTube<\/p>\n

Clancy (36) stood accused of murdering her three children in the basement of her Massachusetts home in January 2023.<\/p>\n

She does not deny strangling five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan, but claims she was suffering from postpartum psychosis \u2013 excusing her from criminal responsibility.<\/p>\n

Her five-week trial, which was televised and featured more than 80 witnesses, has sparked debate in the United States over maternal mental health.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, her defence accused a single holdout juror of blocking a verdict in the high-profile trial.<\/p>\n

Kevin Reddington, Clancy\u2019s main lawyer, told the court that there is \u201cone juror who refuses to listen to the law that you\u2019ve given him or her on reasonable doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

He requested that the juror be removed from the 12-member panel, but Judge William Sullivan refused and instead sent them back to continue deliberating today.<\/p>\n

\"kevin-reddington-defense-attorney-for-lindsay-clancy-walks-through-reporters-and-television-cameras-while-arriving-at-plymouth-county-superior-court-friday-sept-4-2026-in-plymouth-mass-ap-ph\"
\n evin Reddington, defense attorney for Lindsay Clancy, walks through reporters and television cameras while arriving at Plymouth County Superior Court. AP Photo \/ Charles Krupa<\/p>\n

AP Photo \/ Charles Krupa \/ Charles Krupa\n<\/p>\n

To reach a verdict, all 12 jurors must be in agreement.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Sullivan issued the jurors a last-resort, so-called \u201cdynamite charge\u201d that encouraged them to keep discussing in a bid to break the impasse and avoid a mistrial.<\/p>\n

Clancy pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, saying she heard a voice ordering her to kill her children. Her lawyers say this was caused by postpartum psychosis.<\/p>\n

After the killings at her family home in Duxbury, Massachusetts in January 2023, she jumped from a second-story window in an apparent suicide attempt that left her paralysed from the waist down.<\/p>\n

The former nurse faced life in prison without the possibility of parole if found guilty of first-degree murder.<\/p>\n

Jurors could also have found Clancy guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter, or not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility \u2013 a verdict that would have seen Clancy sent to a psychiatric facility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAST UPDATE | 1 hr ago THE JUDGE PRESIDING over the trial of Lindsay said he doesn\u2019t feel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[128471,42,128470,15863,83684,56086,43,246125,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-614462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-duxbury","tag-headlines","tag-lindsay-clancy","tag-massachusetts","tag-maternal-mental-health","tag-murder-trial","tag-news","tag-postpartum-psychosis","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}