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Lindsay Clancy Trial Ends in Hung Jury: What Now?

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The trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother charged with murder in the deaths of her three children, has ended in a hung jury. Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial on Sept. 4 after a jury of nine women and three men deliberated for more than 38 hours and failed to return a unanimous verdict on whether Clancy is criminally responsible for the killing of her three children.

The jury told Sullivan several times they were deadlocked during deliberations. He urged them to continue trying, even invoking special instructions known as the Tuey-Rodriguez charge intended to break the impasse. Drama also unfolded in the courtroom when a note from the jury foreperson alleged that one juror "refused to listen" to the court's instructions about reasonable doubt.

Clancy's defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, unsuccessfully pushed the court to remove the holdout juror, and even went so far as to file an unsuccessful emergency appeal to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for a stay in the case. The prosecution will now decide whether to retry Clancy. The 36-year-old pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of her three children – Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months.

After the mistrial was declared, Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz said he will soon decide whether to try the case again before a new jury. Reddington blasted the holdout juror, saying, "They know they were robbed by one man ... who stole seven weeks of the life of these other jurors." The case sparked a national conversation about postpartum mental health.