Judge Officially Calls Mistrial In Lindsay Clancy Case: What Next?

Lindsay Clancy's murder trial has officially ended in a mistrial after the 12-person jury said it could not unanimously decide whether the Massachusetts mother was criminally responsible for the deaths of her three children.

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Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial on Friday afternoon, Sept. 4, the seventh day of deliberations, after Clancy's attorney Kevin Reddington filed a last-ditch emergency appeal.

The jury stood at 11-1 in favor of acquitting Clancy, though it remained unclear which charges the split applied to, The New York Times reports.

Clancy has remained in custody under psychiatric care at Tewksbury State Hospital since 2023, where she will continue to be held. What happens next will be up to Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz, who can pursue another trial on the first-degree murder charges or lesser charges, consider a plea agreement, or decline to retry Clancy, CBS News reports.

After declaring a mistrial, Sullivan thanked the jurors for their service, invoking a phrase used by Winston Churchill during World War II about "bracing for one’s duty." Sullivan said the jurors knew they were taking on a long and difficult case and praised them for fulfilling that responsibility day after day and week after week. He thanked them personally and on behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Earlier Friday, Sullivan read aloud the jury's latest note in Plymouth Superior Court: "It is with a heavy heart that we report we are unable to come to a unanimous decision and will not be able to."

About two hours before announcing his plans for a mistrial, Sullivan declined to remove the holdout juror, who had refused to join the others in voting to acquit Clancy. Clancy strangled her three children in their Duxbury, MA, home in 2023.

Reddington argued the jury should instead be sent back to continue deliberating with additional legal instructions. Sullivan disagreed, saying Massachusetts law did not support sending the jurors back when they had not asked to continue and that he had no choice but to declare a mistrial.

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