VERDICT WATCH: Jury retires for the day in Lindsay Clancy trial following second indication of deadlock
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Jury deliberations are underway in Lindsay Clancy’s triple-murder trial in Massachusetts. The 36-year-old woman is charged with three counts of murder for the strangling deaths of her three children, ages 5, 3, and 8 months old. Clancy is present in a wheelchair after she was paralyzed by injuries she sustained when she jumped from her home’s second-story window in an alleged suicide attempt. Her defense lawyer claims she was insane at the time, suffering from postpartum psychosis, and could not appreciate the wrongfulness of her actions. We are on Day 5 of deliberations and will post important updates from the courtroom here:
2:15PM MDT UPDATE:
The jury is done deliberating for the day in the Lindsay Clancy triple-murder trial. Jurors returned to the courtroom shortly after 4 p.m. EDT on Wednesday and were officially dismissed by Judge William Sullivan, who then asked them to return to deliberations tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. EDT.
Nate Eaton will have a full breakdown of the day’s events tonight on “Courtroom Insider.” Our Grace Wong will also join Nate for a discussion about how jurors appeared and what it felt like in the Massachusetts courtroom on Day 5 of deliberations.
“Courtroom Insider with Nate Eaton” airs weeknights at 7 p.m. MDT on both our East Idaho News and Courtroom Insider YouTube pages.
1:43PM MDT UPDATE:
Judge William Sullivan has once again asked jurors in the Lindsay Clancy triple-murder trial to return to deliberations after they sent him a second note saying that they are deadlocked.
That notification was issued on Wednesday afternoon, one day after jurors first indicated they were struggling to reach a verdict. The jury was called into the courtroom shortly after 2 p.m. EDT, and Sullivan reiterated the importance of their civic duty to continue to work toward a unanimous agreement on whether Clancy is criminally responsible for killing her children.
This time, however, Sullivan read a document known as the Tuey-Rodriguez Charge. It’s an instruction described by Northeastern Global News as “still a prod, if a slightly more forceful one, to get the jurors to agree.”
After two readings of the Tuey-Rodriguez instruction, Massachusetts law says the judge cannot send the jury back to deliberate without their consent. At that point, legal analysts say he may declare a mistrial.
Following the reading, jurors left the courtroom to resume deliberations. They are expected to deliberate until 4 p.m. EST Wednesday, Court TV reports.
ORIGINAL STORY:
The following was written by CNN’s Nicki Brown and Eric Levenson:
PLYMOUTH, Mass (CNN) — The jury in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial will return to the courthouse Wednesday morning after they ended deliberations Tuesday without reaching a verdict.
“My understanding is that you requested to be excused until tomorrow at 9 o’clock, so I’m going to excuse you ‘til then,” Judge William F. Sullivan said.
The 12-person jury, made up of 9 women and 3 men, deliberated for about 6 hours on Tuesday, pushing its total to about 23 hours over four days.
Earlier Tuesday, the jury sent a note to the court saying they were “unable to come to a unanimous decision.” The judge directed the jury to continue deliberating to try to reach a verdict.
If the jury remains deadlocked, the judge may eventually choose to declare a mistrial, ending the trial without a clear resolution and raising the possibility of another trial down the road.
Jurors are considering five verdicts: guilty of first-degree murder, guilty of second-degree murder, guilty of manslaughter, not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility or not guilty.
Here’s a timeline of how jury deliberations have gone so far in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial:
Thursday, August 27: The 12-person jury begins deliberations at about midday and deliberates for about 3.5 hours.
Friday, August 28: The jury asks the court to see the prescription pill bottles and the knife, key physical evidence in the case. The jury deliberates for just under 7 hours before leaving for the weekend.
Monday, August 31: The jury deliberates for about 7 more hours.
Tuesday, September 1: The jury sends a note to the court saying they “are unable to come to a unanimous decision.” The judge instructs the jury to go back and deliberate further. The jury deliberates for about 6 hours, pushing the total deliberation time to about 23 hours.
This story was originally published at 6:30 a.m. MDT on Wednesday and has been updated.