Defence lawyer blames single juror for deadlock in Lindsay Clancy murder trial

The judge in the Lindsay Clancy trial will hold an inquiry Friday morning (US time) regarding what appears to be a single holdout preventing the Massachusetts jury from reaching a unanimous decision in the closely followed triple-murder case.

The inquiry, according to Clancy’s lead defence lawyer, is set to take place as jurors return for a seventh day of deliberations, after roughly 36 hours spent trying to reach a unanimous verdict. They have been deadlocked since at least Tuesday morning, unable to decide whether to hold Clancy legally responsible for strangling her three children.

Clancy’s lead lawyer, Kevin Reddington, told reporters outside the courthouse that the jury foreperson had sent Judge William Sullivan a note regarding the holdout. The juror is refusing to “listen to law” regarding the legal standard of reasonable doubt, he said.

Sullivan has urged the jurors several times to keep trying to reach a unanimous decision and avoid a mistrial, but refused Reddington’s request on Thursday to remove the recalcitrant juror, calling it “a sensitive undertaking.”

The judge called the jurors into the courtroom individually and questioned each of them on Thursday afternoon, though observers could not hear the discussions.

He then repeated his instructions to the full jury on the meaning of reasonable doubt and sent the jurors back to the deliberation room. They were there for less than an hour before being released for the night with instructions to return at 9am (11pm AEST), as they have for the past week of deliberations.

The wrenching case has sharply divided Americans over whether Clancy, 36, should be held criminally responsible for her children’s deaths and cast scrutiny on access to care for new mothers struggling with mental health. Failure by the jury to reach a verdict would result in a mistrial, and prosecutors would have to decide whether to try again for a conviction while Clancy remained institutionalsed.

Though Clancy does not deny strangling her children in January 2023, her lawyers argued that she committed the killings while in the throes of postpartum psychosis. Prosecutors disputed the severity of Clancy’s condition and accused her of coldly plotting to kill her children while her husband was away, then attempting to die by suicide.

The jury of nine women and three men has the option of convicting Clancy of murder or manslaughter, or of finding her not guilty by reason of insanity.