USA – Judge William Sullivan of Plymouth Superior Court in Massachusetts has declared the murder case against Lindsay Clancy a mistrial.
According to CNN the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict after days of deliberation.
Clancy, a former nurse, is accused of premeditated murder of her three young children – Cora (five), Dawson (three) and Callan (eight months). The children were strangled in their home in Duxbury on 24 January 2023. Shortly afterwards, Clancy jumped from her bedroom window in a suicide attempt. She has been paralysed from the waist down since then.
Prosecutors in the case said Clancy planned the murders and knew the difference between right and wrong. The defence conceded that she killed her children, but argued she should not be held criminally responsible because she was over-medicated and suffered from postnatal psychosis.
The jury, consisting of nine women and three men, deliberated for 36 hours over seven days. For a third time they told the judge they could not reach a verdict. Notes showed the jury was divided eleven to one, while a verdict had to be unanimous.
Before the mistrial was officially declared, Clancy's lawyer, Kevin Reddington, filed an emergency appeal with the Massachusetts Supreme Court. He wanted the single juror who did not agree to be removed, because he believed that man had refused to follow the law as the judge explained it. The court rejected this request on Friday afternoon, however.
After that, Judge Sullivan brought the jury back into court and officially declared the trial a mistrial. This means the trial is now over without a verdict. A status hearing is scheduled for 29 September. The prosecutor must now decide whether Clancy will be tried again.
Sources: CNN, ABC News, CBS News
This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
