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No Verdict Yet
Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial in Plymouth County Superior Court sent home for the day without a verdict after a third day of deliberations, with deliberations expected to continue on Tuesday.
“The jury has been deliberating for about 16 hours total over a span of three days.”
Clancy, a 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse, has pleaded not guilty to three murder charges tied to the Jan. 24, 2023 killings of her three children, Cora, Dawson and Callan, in the basement of the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts.
ABC News said the jury has been deliberating for about 16 hours total over a span of three days, while CBS News reported deliberations passed 17 hours before the jury left for the evening.
In court Monday, Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan welcomed the jurors around 9:15 a.m. before sending them back out to continue deliberating, and later told attorneys the jury had asked to go home for the evening around 3:45 p.m.
Postpartum Psychosis Dispute
Both sides agree Clancy fatally strangled her children with exercise resistance bands on January 24, 2023, but they dispute whether she was criminally responsible due to postpartum mental illness.
CNN en Español quoted prosecutor Jennifer Sprague arguing in closing arguments, “I’m not saying she was happy about it. I’m saying it was what she had to do to end her suffering,” and added, “But it was a decision. It was a decision.”
The defense, as described by CNN en Español, argued Clancy killed the children during a postpartum psychotic episode, with Dr. Phillip Resnick saying, “It was almost as if she were a puppet and someone else was pulling the strings.”
ABC News also reported that Clancy’s defense attorney claimed she was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she strangled her children and attempted to take her own life, while prosecutors argued Clancy is criminally responsible for her children’s deaths.
Possible Outcomes
If convicted, Clancy could face life in prison without parole for first-degree murder, while if found not criminally responsible she would be sent to a state mental health facility, according to ABC News.
“If she is found guilty, Clancy could face life in prison without parole.”
CBS News said that if jurors find Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity, she will be required to continue her stay at Tewksbury State Hospital, where her case will be reviewed periodically.
CNN en Español laid out that the jury could return five possible verdicts, including guilty of murder, guilty of intentional or unpremeditated homicide, guilty of homicide with mitigating circumstances, not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility, and not guilty.
As deliberations continued, ABC News reported that jurors were expected to continue deliberating on Tuesday, after the judge sent them home Monday following a second full day of deliberations.