Crime · 03 September, 2026 · 3 min read
Judge William Sullivan Declares Mistrial in Lindsay Clancy Triple Infanticide Case
Jury failed to reach verdict; judge declares mistrial in Clancy case. Deliberations extended across about six days with ongoing deadlock.
Whether it is treated as more than a dismissal.
6 of 8 outlets skipped it: defense sought emergency stay from the Supreme Judicial Court.
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ABC
“La decisión no equivale a una absolución, pero Clancy tampoco ha sido declarada culpable.”Read the original ↗
24 heures
“the trial is dismissed and may potentially be reorganized later with a new jury.”
Translated from the original.
Read the original ↗One outlet stresses not acquitted, another frames it as dismissal for retrial.
Hung jury ends trial
Lindsay Clancy’s trial for the triple infanticide of her three children ended Friday without a verdict after the twelve jurors failed to agree on the criminal liability of the mother accused of killing her three children.
“Judge William Sullivan of the Plymouth, near Boston, courthouse ordered the trial to be dismissed.”
Judge William Sullivan of the Plymouth, near Boston, courthouse ordered the trial to be dismissed, saying, “I have no choice but to declare the trial dismissed,” after reading jurors’ statement acknowledging with a heavy heart their inability to reach a unanimous verdict.
The status of the deliberations that filtered from exchanges between the judge, the defense, and the prosecution showed eleven jurors favored acquittal on lack of criminal responsibility, against one who was opposed.
Clancy, 36, admits to killing her children aged 5, 3, and 8 months, but pleads not guilty, with her defense asserting she suffered postpartum psychosis and that a voice supposedly ordered her to kill her children.
An appeals court later confirmed the trial’s dismissal, and the case can then be retried before a new jury.
What jurors said
On Wednesday afternoon, jurors were sent home for the day due to what Judge William Sullivan described as an “unforeseen circumstance,” with testimony scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. on Thursday.
Sullivan told jurors, “This is not something we saw coming, but you're not to speculate about what it is,” and said they were “not to hold it against either side.”
In the days leading to the dismissal, jurors repeatedly reported they remained at an impasse after 28 hours of deliberating as to whether Clancy should be convicted of first-degree murder for killing her three children in 2023.
WBUR reported that on Wednesday the judge read “Tuey-Rodriguez” instructions, strongly urging jurors to keep trying for a verdict, including that the burden of proof is on the Commonwealth to establish every essential element beyond a reasonable doubt.
After nearly a week of deliberations, WBUR said the judge declared a mistrial after jurors sent notes indicating they could not reach a unanimous decision.
Next steps and stakes
After the mistrial, it will be up to the Plymouth County district attorney’s office to determine if prosecutors will seek to retry Clancy, with the office able to pursue lesser charges in a new trial.
“It will be up to the Plymouth County district attorney's office to determine if prosecutors will seek to retry her.”
WBUR said Clancy is expected to be held in a state psychiatric hospital, where she has been for more than three years, and that the five-week trial did not center on whether she killed her children but on whether her mental state was so compromised she could not be held criminally responsible.
Outside the courthouse, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz said his office would make a decision on a retrial soon — but not today — and he said, “Children were murdered, and it is our job to seek justice.”
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington responded by saying, “Cruz knows that he was crushed. He doesn't have a case,” and argued that the jurors were “robbed by one man” who he said prevented a unanimous decision.
The case has reignited debate over maternal mental health and postpartum psychosis, which 20 Minutes said affects one to two women per 1,000 births according to associations.