After a Massachusetts judge declared a mistrial in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial due to a deadlocked jury, it’s not currently clear whether she’ll be retried for the killings of her three children.
Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said there hasn’t been a decision on a retrial while addressing reporters following the mistrial declaration on Friday, September 4, according to NBC News and other news outlets.
“I appreciate the hard work of the jury in this case,” Cruz said. “The jury obviously worked incredibly hard, stayed with that case for six and a half days.”
On Friday, jurors said they still could not unanimously agree on Clancy’s criminal responsibility for the 2023 murders of her daughter and two sons, leaving the jury deadlocked 11-1 after a nearly six-week trial, The Associated Press reported.
Clancy has admitted to strangling her children to death inside her basement before jumping out a second-story window of her home in an apparent suicide attempt. She pleaded not guilty to the killings by reason of insanity. Clancy’s defense argued that she had been suffering from severe postpartum psychosis and bipolar disorder at the time.
“I’m going to declare a mistrial at this point,” Judge William Sullivan said in court, leading to Clancy’s defense appealing the matter, per The Associated Press.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court turned down the defense team’s appeal.
“In the end, I bring it all back to the child victims in this case, Cora, Dawson, and Callan. This was, and it has always been, about getting justice for those three little babies. We’re here at this courthouse today because those children are not,” Cruz said following the mistrial.
“Children were murdered and it’s our job to seek justice,” he added.
“I appreciate there are strong feelings and opinions tied to this case however our job is to set aside our opinions and focus on the facts. and the facts are that Lindsay Clancy killed her children,” Cruz also said.
“We did our part and I’m proud of the part of the work we did…This case is not about the health care system or how women are treated in it … those are all important issues, they stir up emotion and sometimes they stir up anger. This case, however, was about Lindsay Clancy and what she did January 24, 2023, and the cruel and calculated killing of three innocents,” Cruz continued.
If jurors agreed Clancy was criminally responsible in her children’s deaths, she would face a lifetime prison sentence without the possibility of parole, Us previously reported. If they had decided she had no criminal liability, she would’ve been sentenced to remain in a state mental health facility for the rest of her life. Clancy will now return to Tewksbury Hospital, where she has been held since 2023.
After the mistrial, Clancy’s defense attorney Kevin Reddington said she “grieves the loss of those three children, Cora, Dawson, and Callan,” per CNN.
“Every time somebody had something to say about those young kids, Lindsay would smile and say, ‘I’m glad.’ She wants them to be remembered,” he also said, according to CNN.
