The judge said questioning the juror would have been impermissibly coercive
On 9 November in Massachusetts, Judge William Sullivan denied Lindsay Clancy’s defense access to the records of the lone juror who held out in her murder trial and rejected a request to question that juror under oath. BBC News reported that Sullivan said the defense failed to demonstrate that the records were needed for Clancy’s defense at any retrial. He said questioning the juror “would have been impermissibly coercive.”
In the same ruling, Sullivan denied the defense motion to dismiss the case after the 12-person jury failed to reach a verdict in September. The defense argued that double jeopardy, which prevents a person from being tried for the same crime twice, barred a retrial. BBC News reported that Clancy’s lawyers argued Sullivan, who presided over the 26-day jury trial last summer, acted prematurely when he declared a mistrial on 4 September and should have sought a viable alternative.
BBC News also described the proceeding as a five-week trial: “The five-week trial, its lead-up and aftermath gripped Americans, and put postpartum mental health issues such as psychosis in the spotlight.”
A related BBC News item published 19 August said the trial put postpartum mental health issues such as psychosis “in the spotlight.” In a related BBC video, Ione Wells described how the trial “gripped America” and “ultimately fell apart.”
In the dismissal portion of the ruling, Sullivan wrote: “Because the court concludes that there was manifest necessity for a mistrial based on the jury’s deadlock, a retrial on the murder indictments does not violate Clancy’s right not to be placed in double jeopardy.”
Sullivan said the possibility that “an unreasonably stubborn or eccentric juror” could be seated was “an unavoidable risk of the jury system.”
Sullivan’s dismissal ruling cleared the way for prosecutors to pursue the case. In a potential second trial, prosecutors could reduce the charges or dismiss them altogether. Sullivan set 16 November to discuss scheduling a potential second trial and had previously suggested it could begin in March.
Prosecutors allege that on 24 January 2023, Clancy intentionally strangled all three of her children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, eight months — in the family’s Duxbury, Massachusetts, home. BBC News reported that Clancy has not denied killing the children in 2023, but her defense argues she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis at the time. Prosecutors say the killings were intentional.
BBC News reported that, after weeks of emotional testimony, the jury took a week to deliberate and repeatedly told Sullivan it could not reach a verdict. The deadlock came from one juror, who voted to convict Clancy of first-degree murder, while the other 11 intended to acquit her by reason of insanity.
Massachusetts and all other U.S. criminal murder trials require juries to reach unanimous decisions to convict or acquit. Because the jurors did not unanimously agree that prosecutors had proved Clancy guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt,” Sullivan declared a mistrial on 4 September. The mistrial left Clancy neither found guilty nor found not guilty.
A related BBC News report said the holdout juror had no doubt that Clancy deliberately killed her children.
A related BBC News item also reported that Clancy jurors spoke out about what led to the mistrial.
A BBC News related item published 21 September reported that Clancy’s ex-husband said he forgave her so he would not be “eaten up inside forever.”
Clancy is currently housed in a state-run psychiatric hospital and medical facility in Massachusetts. BBC News had contacted Clancy’s lawyers for comment. Ana Faguy contributed reporting.