Picture: Josh Reynolds/AP Picture/Josh Reynolds
On Friday, the decide for Lindsay Clancy’s homicide trial declared a mistrial after almost seven days of jury deliberation. The choice comes after an emotional six-week trial that sparked debate over the state of postpartum care and on-line conspiracy theories about Clancy’s ex-husband.
Clancy, 36, has admitted to strangling her three kids, who have been 5 years outdated, 3 years outdated, and eight months outdated, in January 2023 at her dwelling in Duxbury, Massachusetts. However her attorneys argued that she can’t be held legally liable for the deaths as a result of she was within the throes of postpartum psychosis. Within the months main as much as the tragedy, her attorneys say she had been prescribed greater than a dozen psychiatric medicines that had left her feeling paranoid and suicidal. (Clancy and her ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, have filed medical-malpractice lawsuits towards a number of mental-health suppliers and hospitals.)
The prosecution argued the killings have been premeditated. Attorneys instructed the jury that Clancy intentionally despatched Patrick away to select up meals so she might be alone with the kids. When he got here dwelling, he found Clancy mendacity within the yard, barely aware. She had minimize her wrists and neck earlier than leaping out the second-story window of their home. As soon as the paramedics arrived, he discovered their three kids, who had been strangled with train bands, within the basement.
“She was depressed. She was exhausted. She was accomplished,” mentioned one of many prosecuting attorneys in closing arguments. “However these youngsters, these youngsters have been her protecting issue. These youngsters have been retaining her from ending her distress. So she needed to take away the protecting issue.”
In the course of the trial, tons of of girls confirmed up outdoors the Massachusetts courthouse — a lot of them sporting pink — to help Clancy, whose story has turn into a cautionary story of how the health-care system fails new moms.
The jury deliberated for greater than 36 hours over the course of six-and-a-half days, repeatedly returning to the courtroom to inform the decide they have been deadlocked. On Friday morning, jurors mentioned in a be aware learn out loud within the courtroom, “It’s with a heavy coronary heart that we report we have been unable to return to a unanimous resolution and won’t be able to.” Earlier than the mistrial was formally declared, Clancy’s lead lawyer, Kevin Reddington, tried to petition for a keep, insisting {that a} foreman had knowledgeable him one juror wasn’t following the court docket’s directions about affordable doubt.
Now {that a} mistrial has been declared, consultants have mentioned prosecutors will possible push to retry Clancy. The decide has set a listening to for September 29.
“This was and has all the time been about getting justice for these stunning infants,” Plymouth district lawyer Timothy Cruz mentioned outdoors the courthouse. “Kids have been murdered and it’s our job to hunt justice.”
Responding to Cruz’s remarks, Reddington mentioned after the mistrial was declared, “My consumer is nicely conscious of the truth that her three youngsters, who she beloved dearly, are the victims on this case.” He criticized the juror he believed was the holdout, saying, “I hope that man can sleep nicely at night time.”
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