On Friday, Judge William Sullivan ended the trial in Plymouth inconclusively. The jury was “deadlocked” and was in a stalemate, he said, and declared the proceedings a “mistrial”, i.e. invalid. It was the seventh and final day of the final deliberations. The committee struggled for almost 40 hours, after months of investigations, reports, witness interviews and pleas. But a single juror was not convinced of the defendant's innocence. That was enough for the demolition.
Exonerated by ex-husband and father of children
So there is no verdict in this case for the time being, although there was never any doubt about the crime itself. Lindsay Clancy admitted it. The then 33-year-old mother killed her daughter Cora and her two sons Dawson and Callan, aged five, three years and eight months, in the basement of the family's Duxbury home. She then slit her veins and threw herself out of an upstairs window. The American has been in a wheelchair ever since.
Her then-husband found the dead children and his injured wife when he returned from running errands. Patrick Clancy, now divorced, was also the first witness. He advocated for the accused to be acquitted. Lindsay Clancy, a nurse by profession, apparently had severe psychological problems after the birth of her youngest son and was hospitalized for a time.
It is said that the psychotropic drugs made her condition worse. There was talk of inner voices. Lindsay Clancy has filed a civil lawsuit against health care providers; her case has also become a reckoning with the American health care system and the handling of the dramatic circumstances surrounding births. According to her accusers, Lindsay Clancy nevertheless acted "deliberately, rationally and quickly" when she strangled the children with an exercise band during her husband's brief absence. Psychiatrists came to different assessments.
One refuses - despite doubts
It was broadcast live online and the case became a public spectacle. The Internet is full of all kinds of comments, and the camps tend to be divided into liberal supporters and conservative opponents of Lindsay Clancy. For some she is a perpetrator, for others she is a victim. However, eleven jurors, like their lawyers, are of the opinion that she was not in control of her senses in those moments and therefore deserved an acquittal. In Massachusetts, no one can be held criminally liable if a mental illness or disorder is proven.
Only the decision should have been unanimous, the consent of the twelfth juror was missing. The defense ultimately demanded that the holdout be removed. The lawyer Kevin Reddington even turned to the Supreme Court of Massachusetts with an urgent application. He also pointed out that this juror himself had expressed doubts about Lindsay Clancy's guilt. But Judge Sullivan decided to cancel the trial.
Lindsay Clancy remains in the psychiatric ward
And now? Prosecutor Timothy Cruz had chosen the most serious charge: triple murder. That would have meant life imprisonment for Lindsay Clancy; critics accuse the prosecutors of reflexive harshness. “Our priority has always been to fight for Cora, for Dawson and for Callan,” Cruz said. He'll have to see if he wants a new trial.
Lindsay Clancy will return to Tewksbury Hospital, a state psychiatric hospital, US media reports. She would probably have remained in a hospital if she had been acquitted. According to the New York Times, in addition to treating possible suicidal thoughts or bipolar disorder, it is also about coming to terms with the killing of their children and preparing for a return to society.
“Many of these women have no significant psychiatric history and would then quickly and seriously become ill,” the newspaper quotes psychiatrist Nicole H. Cirino from the nonprofit organization Postpartum Support International, a specialist in postpartum psychosis. “Dealing with this and thinking about what to do next – especially when legal action has been taken – is really a very complicated matter that takes some time.”
Lindsay Clancy's aides are disappointed by the legal ambiguity. A recalcitrant juror “robbed everyone of seven weeks,” said lawyer Reddington. “I hope this guy can sleep peacefully at night.” Lindsay Clancy is “very strong” and “very intelligent,” but “her life is a tragedy.”
