Judge refused defense request to remove juror after heated exchanges
The deadlocked jury in the Massachusetts murder trial of Lindsay Clancy went home without a verdict Thursday, ending a sixth day of deliberations in which a single juror refused to follow the court’s reasonable-doubt instructions, The Guardian reported. The jury is scheduled to return Friday to see whether it can break the deadlock.
Her defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, told the judge that the panel’s foreperson said in a note that one juror would not follow the court’s instructions on reasonable doubt and was holding up a verdict. Before sending the jurors home Thursday, the judge refused the defense’s request to remove that juror following heated discussions among the parties, The Guardian reported.
Clancy, 36, a former labor and delivery nurse, does not deny strangling her three children — Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, eight months — in the basement of the family home in 2023 before attempting to take her own life. Her attorneys have argued that postpartum psychosis drove the killings, while prosecutors have maintained that she knew what she was doing when she killed the children.
The case has become a focal point of public debate over criminal culpability and maternal mental health after childbirth. Clancy’s live-streamed trial has drawn intense public interest, with reporters and spectators packing the courtroom. The proceedings have also sparked deep public divisions over her culpability and the broader issues around maternal mental health, The Guardian reported.