A judge on Friday declared a mistrial in the high-profile case involving Lindsay Clancy, an American woman accused of killing her three young children, after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict.
Clancy, 36, admitted strangling her children — five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan — but argued that she was not criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings.
After seven days of deliberations, the 12-member jury remained deadlocked. A single juror reportedly opposed a verdict finding Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity, preventing the panel from reaching the unanimity required in US criminal proceedings.
“At this point, I’m going to declare that the jury is deadlocked, and I’m going to declare a mistrial,” Judge William Sullivan said.
The decision means prosecutors must now determine whether to retry the case before a new jury. Clancy will remain incarcerated while authorities consider the possibility of a retrial.
The five-week trial, which featured testimony from more than 80 witnesses, focused extensively on Clancy’s mental state and the issue of maternal mental health.
Clancy pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, telling authorities that she heard a voice instructing her to kill her children. Her lawyers argued that the voice and her actions were linked to postpartum psychosis, a rare condition that experts estimate affects about one to two women in every 1,000 births.
Prosecutors rejected the defence’s argument, maintaining that Clancy had carefully planned the killings and understood the consequences of her actions.
Psychiatrists, relatives, people close to Clancy and her estranged husband all testified about her fragile mental state before the deaths.
Supporters Rally Outside Court
The case has also generated wider discussion in the United States about maternal mental health and access to medical care.
Dozens of women dressed in pink attended proceedings at the Plymouth court to support Clancy and raise awareness about women’s health issues.
During closing arguments, Clancy’s lawyer, Reddington, said she had repeatedly sought help before the killings but received what he described as “lousy medical care” from doctors she consulted.
The children were killed at the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in January 2023. After the killings, Clancy jumped from a second-storey window in an apparent suicide attempt, leaving her paralysed from the waist down.
Clancy, a former nurse, faced the possibility of life imprisonment without parole if convicted of first-degree murder.
Jurors were also allowed to consider second-degree murder, manslaughter, or a finding that she was not criminally responsible. Such a finding would have resulted in her confinement in a psychiatric facility.
The case has drawn comparisons with that of Andrea Yates, a Texas mother who drowned her five children in 2001.
Yates was initially convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment but was found not guilty by reason of insanity at a 2006 retrial. She was subsequently committed to a psychiatric hospital.
