PLYMOUTH, MASS. (WHDH) - Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial in Lindsay Clancy’s murder case after the state’s highest court denied the defense’s emergency appeal in an eventful day in Plymouth District Court on Friday.
After being deadlocked for three days, the jury reentered the courtroom around 11:15 a.m. They had begun deliberations around 9 a.m. and said again that they were unable to reach a unanimous decision.
Sullivan said the jury’s note read, “It is with a heavy heart that we report we are unable to come to a unanimous decision, and we will not be able to.”
Clancy’s Defense Attorney Kevin Reddington asked Sullivan for a justice on the state’s highest court to intervene after Sullivan initially called for a mistrial Friday afternoon. Sullivan allowed Reddington one hour to do so. After an emergency hearing, the Supreme Judicial Court denied the defense’s filing, and a mistrial was officially declared.
Before deliberations began Friday, Reddington and Sullivan exchanged words over Reddington’s request to have a juror removed. Reddington accused Sullivan of being “soft” in reiterating to the jury what reasonable doubt was, to which Sullivan responded, “What do you want? A brass band?”
— Appeal filed by defense to prevent mistrial —
Reddington took questions from the media at a podium outside the courthouse Friday, where he said Clancy is like a daughter to him and that she should have been acquitted.
“My client is well aware that her three kids who she loved dearly are victims,” Reddington said. “Every time someone has something to say about those three kids, Lindsay would smile and say, ‘I’m glad.’ She wants them to be remembered.”
Reddington also had strong words for the one juror he believes prevented his client from being acquitted.
“You could see how defeated they [the jurors] were sitting there,” he said. “And I got a funny feeling they would’ve gone on for another week if they needed to, so I hope that man can sleep well at night.”
He also criticized Plymouth District Attorney Tim Cruz, whose prosecutors argued that Clancy knew what she was doing when she killed her three young children.
— Clancy’s Defense Attorney Kevin Reddington speaks after mistrial declared —
Following the trial, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz also addressed the media, saying he is proud of his prosecutors and the way they handled this case.
“Speaking in the world we llive today and all too often, criminals are being treated as victims. And the real victims are invisible. It is out job to make sure the victims are not invisible, to make sure they’re not forgotten, and to stand for them in the way that we seek justice. And that’s what I think we’ve done in this case,” Cruz said.
He strongly criticized the hate the prosecution had received during the trial.
“The way there were vilified and portrayed on social media is disgusting to me,” Cruz said.
Cruz said it was an emotional day for everyone involved, and his team remains committed to getting justice for Clancy’s three children.
“I cannot imagine the hell this entire family lived through,” Cruz said. “I remind myself that this has been, and will always be, about getting justice and making sure we do not forget Cora, Dawson, and Callum.”
Cruz said there will be no answer as to if and when a retiral will occur this week.
“I do know that one of the questions that are out here right now regarding retrials,” Cruz said. “I will let you know that there will be no decisions made today regarding that. I’m going to be meeting with our team, and we will address this case further at the appropriate time in the context of an official court proceeding.”
— Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz speaks after mistrial declared —
Judge Sullivan said if a retrial was to take place, he would like to try and have it this Fall, but ultimately that decision rests with what Cruz decides.
Clancy, 36, did not deny strangling her children in the basement of their Duxbury home in 2023. Reddington argued that postpartum psychosis led to her actions. The prosecution argued that she knew what she was doing when she killed Cora, Dawson, and Callan Clancy, ages 5, 3, and 8 months.
In 2023, Clancy strangled the children with exercise bands in their basement, then jumped from a second-floor window. She was paralyzed from the waist down from the jump. Her lawyers said she heard a voice telling her to kill the children so she could end her own life.
The jury was tasked with deciding whether Clancy could be criminally charged in the deaths of her three children after hearing testimony from dozens of witnesses, including Clancy’s ex-husband Patrick Clancy.
“Patrick Clancy is grateful to the Court and to the jurors for their hard work, their commitment, and their perseverance. The loss of Patrick’s children is something from which he will never recover and from which there will never be closure. The prospect of reliving this tragedy through another trial is extraordinarily painful — for Patrick, for his family, and for all us,” said David Meier, attorney for Patrick Clancy.
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