PLYMOUTH, Mass. — The deadlocked jury within the Lindsay Clancy trial went house and not using a verdict Thursday in a dramatic sixth day of deliberations, after the jury’s foreperson despatched the choose a notice saying a single juror received’t comply with the court docket’s directions about cheap doubt.
Particulars of the jury room battle weren’t revealed by the choose and solely briefly mentioned in open court docket, however they raised the likelihood {that a} single holdout was standing in the way in which of a verdict on whether or not the Massachusetts mom is criminally answerable for killing her three children.
The jury will return Friday to see if it will probably attain a choice. Earlier than sending the jury house, the choose refused the protection’s request to take away one of many jurors following heated discussions among the many events.
Clancy, a 36-year-old former labor and supply nurse, doesn’t deny strangling her youngsters within the basement of their house in 2023 earlier than attempting to take her personal life. Her lawyer argues that postpartum psychosis led to her actions, whereas prosecutors say she knew what she was doing when she killed Cora, Dawson and Callan Clancy, ages 5, 3 and eight months.
Clancy’s livestreamed trial has generated intense interest, with reporters and spectators packing the courtroom. The case has additionally sparked deep public divisions over her culpability and the problems round maternal mental health after childbirth.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story consists of dialogue of suicide. In the event you or somebody you recognize wants assist, the nationwide suicide and disaster lifeline within the U.S. is offered by calling or texting 988.
Whereas the jury has twice despatched the choose notes saying it couldn’t agree on a verdict, that is the primary time it has indicated attainable stress or acrimony within the deliberation room.
Clancy’s lawyer Kevin Reddington stated in court docket that the jury foreperson despatched one other notice Thursday complaining to the choose that one juror was refusing to take heed to the regulation on cheap doubt.
Decide William Sullivan, after receiving the jury’s notice, introduced in every juror individually and questioned them in non-public. The choose then reread his directions on cheap doubt earlier than sending them again to proceed deliberating. Reddington informed the choose he ought to have dismissed the juror from the case.
“If we come again right here in a half-hour with a mistrial due to a juror that has simply spurned the directions of this court docket, it’s a disgrace — it’s an actual disgrace,” Reddington stated, referring to a attainable deadlocked jury.
Reddington stated afterward outdoors the courthouse that the juror could be questioned by the choose Friday. “There’s an individual who has doubt however is not going to take heed to the choose’s directions,” he informed reporters.
Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague stated in court docket that she believed Sullivan’s instruction was acceptable and no additional motion was obligatory.
Sullivan stated eradicating a deliberating juror is a delicate enterprise.
“I don’t really feel it’s correct for me to facet with one facet or the opposite of the deliberations,” the choose stated. “I don’t really feel it’s acceptable for me to say, ‘I agree with one juror or the 11.’ I’ve requested if they’re able to comply with my directions. They swore earlier that they may.”
At one level and for the primary time within the trial, Clancy was introduced to hitch a sidebar dialog with the choose. Paralyzed from the waist down after her suicide attempt, Clancy makes use of a wheelchair, which Reddington himself pushed to the entrance of the courtroom.
“She has a proper to know what’s occurring,” he later informed reporters.
Indicators there was a rising probability of a hung jury and the trial ending without a resolution surfaced on Wednesday when Sullivan defined to the courtroom that jurors have been caught for a second time.
Sullivan informed the jurors to not abandon their very own convictions simply to achieve a verdict, however urged them to significantly take into account opposing views and reassess their positions if acceptable.
If the jury finally can’t agree on a verdict, the choose might declare a mistrial. Prosecutors would then must resolve whether or not to place Clancy on trial once more, drop the costs or attempt to negotiate a plea cope with her lawyer.
If the jury decides Clancy was criminally answerable for her actions, it might convict her of both homicide or manslaughter. If she is acquitted, a choose might nonetheless order her confined to a psychological well being facility if an analysis determines that she poses a hazard to the general public.
All through the trial, Clancy has obtained letters of assist “from everywhere in the world,” protection lawyer Kevin Reddington stated Thursday. “It’s simply wonderful. She reads all of them.”
Jurors have heard testimony from family members and medical doctors about how Clancy’s psychological well being declined in the months before the killings and the way her remedy included a number of drugs and a brief keep in a psychiatric hospital.
Medical consultants employed by the prosecution and the protection reached sharply completely different conclusions about her psychiatric state when she killed the youngsters.
Patrick Clancy has stated in interviews that he forgives his now ex-wife, whom he views as in poor health slightly than evil.
Clancy strangled the children with exercise bands of their house’s basement, then minimize herself and jumped from a second-floor window. Her attorneys say she heard a voice telling her to kill the youngsters so she might finish her personal life.
The prosecution argues she intentionally despatched her then-husband on errands to get him out of the home, and prosecutors have questioned the seriousness of her suicide try.
Related Press writers Ed White in Detroit, Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
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