Judge declares a mistrial against Lindsay Clancy after jury blocking

It was an announced decision, although it was postponed again for a while. “I have no choice but to declare a mistrial,” declared this Thursday Judge William Sullivan, who presides in the court of Plymouth (Massachusetts) the trial against Lindsay Clancy, the mother accused of killing her three children but who pleaded not guilty due to suffering from postpartum trauma, has caused a division in the jury and in the conscience of the United States.

In a new twist, and once the prosecutor endorsed the magistrate's decision after a third consecutive note from the jury in three days in which they repeated that they were not achieving a unanimous verdict, the defense lawyer, Kevin Reddington, surprised by demanding that the jury be sent again to deliberate. The lawyer considered that there is only one jury that blocks the decision and, as he did on Thursday, this Friday he insisted that that member be replaced, something that the judge opposed.

However, once the magistrate said he had no choice but to declare a mistrial, he gave Reddington a one-hour window to request an emergency stay “before he declares a mistrial” and file an appeal. The judge gave him one hour by not accepting that the jury be summoned again this Saturday or Tuesday, because Monday is a holiday in the United States.

By emergency means, the defender had that period to get a higher court to accept his request and force the jury to continue deliberating after almost 40 hours in which its members have been unable to reach an agreement on whether Clancy is guilty of a triple murder, of involuntary manslaughter or is innocent as she cannot be charged due to her mental state.

This horrible crime has divided the country between those who believe that there can be no forgiveness for someone who has committed such brutality and those who consider that this professional nurse asked for help for the trauma she suffered and never received attention.

Clancy accepted responsibility for the events, although he pleaded not guilty for the deaths of his three children —Cora, 5 years old; Dawson, 3 years old, and Callan, 8 months old—at her home in Duxbury on January 24, 2023. Everything happened while her husband was out picking up prepared food.

The accused made this declaration of innocence because she suffered from postpartum trauma, which nullified her faculties. After killing his children by strangulation with a gym rubber band, he took pills, cut himself with a knife and threw himself from the second floor of his house. She was paralyzed and uses a wheelchair.