Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial in Plymouth Superior Court after the 12-member jury reached an impasse following seven days of deliberations.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court dismissed an emergency appeal by defence lawyers seeking to block the mistrial declaration.
Judge Sullivan rejected a plea by defence attorney Kevin Reddington to remove a holdout juror preventing an acquittal.
Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial on Friday in Lindsay Clancy's murder trial after jurors sent three notes this week saying they had reached an impasse, Reuters reported. The ruling keeps open the chance of a second trial later this year. Clancy is due back in court on September 29 for a follow-up hearing.
The nearly six-week televised trial revived debate over postpartum mental health in the US and how the legal system treats mothers who kill their children.
Jury Deadlock Deepens
The 12 jurors in Plymouth, Massachusetts, deliberated for seven days. Prosecutors supported the mistrial after the panel sent a third note saying it was deadlocked.
Sullivan told the court on Friday morning that he had no choice but to end the proceedings. Before he ruled, Clancy's lawyers filed an emergency appeal to Massachusetts' highest court in an effort to block the mistrial declaration.
The Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts' Suffolk County denied that request, clearing the way for the mistrial declaration. Earlier on Friday, Sullivan also turned down a defence request to remove a juror whom Kevin Reddington said was preventing a not-guilty verdict. The foreperson sent a note on behalf of 11 jurors saying one juror had admitted doubt but would not apply it to the verdict. Jurors could find Clancy guilty of first-degree murder only if prosecutors proved the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Prosecution Evidence Summary
Prosecutors said Clancy had mental-health problems, but argued she still understood that killing her children was wrong and chose to do it anyway.
They relied on testimony from a psychologist who examined her and concluded that she had planned to take her own life and killed the children because "she was convinced that they would suffer without her." Prosecutors also pointed to evidence that she sent her husband to collect a food order and go to a pharmacy after using her phone to map the time it would take him to get home.
The case drew comparisons with Andrea Yates, the Texas woman who drowned her five children in 2001. An appeals court later overturned Yates' murder conviction, and she was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 2006. Her lawyers had argued that she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis.
Family Testimony And Custody
Family members, including Clancy's now ex-husband Patrick Clancy, described how her mental health had worsened after the birth of their third child, and jurors heard that multiple healthcare providers prescribed a range of drugs.
Patrick Clancy testified that she had been discharged from a psychiatric hospital weeks earlier. He told jurors that she showed no sign in the days that followed that she intended to hurt herself or the children, and said her demeanour was "normal" when he left to pick up dinner. He also said he briefly spoke with her by phone while he was at the pharmacy.
When he returned home, he found her in the backyard with cuts on her wrists and neck. He said she told him she had tried to kill herself. He asked where the children were, and she said they were in the basement. After calling 911 and after first responders arrived, he went to the basement and found the children with exercise bands tied around their necks.
Several witnesses, including Patrick Clancy, also testified that Lindsay Clancy later said at a hospital that she had heard a man's voice telling her that if she did not act, she would lose her chance.
Following the September 4, 2026 mistrial declaration, Plymouth Superior Court ordered that all prior bail orders remain in full effect, remanding Lindsay Clancy to continue being held without bail in state custody, CBS News reported. Under those arrangements, as of September 4, 2026, she remains confined under medical and psychiatric care at Tewksbury State Hospital, where she has been held under court order since 2023, while her first-degree murder charges remain pending ahead of the September 29, 2026 status hearing.
