What happens if jury cannot come to unanimous verdict in Lindsay Clancy trial explained by attorney
An attorney has explained what will happen if the jury in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial fail to reach a unanimous verdict, admitting that a mistrial is 'not necessarily the immediate next step'.
The group of 12 jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial have entered their fifth day of deliberations, after issuing a note to the judge on Tuesday (September 1) stating they had reached a deadlock.
And today (September 2) has been nothing short of eventful, after a Massachusetts woman, Dawn Light, 56, was arrested outside the court in Plymouth, following claims that she was photographing and intimidating jurors.
As of now, the jury have still not been able to come to a unanimous decision regarding the three first-degree murder charges facing Clancy.
What are the possible verdicts Clancy is facing?
Put simply, jurors aren't deciding whether the 36-year-old killed her children - she has admitted that she did. The big question is whether she was criminally responsible for doing so, after claiming that she was suffering an episode of postpartum psychosis at the time.
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There are five possible verdicts:
- Guilty of first-degree murder
- Guilty of second-degree murder
- Guilty of manslaughter
- Not guilty
- Not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility (the equivalent of an insanity defence).
The prosecution have argued she was suffering mentally, but nevertheless understood what she was doing and deliberately planned the killings.
'There are several potential paths forward', attorney explains
But with the jury deadlocked on day five of deliberations, attorney Shari Karney has explained what would happen if, ultimately, the jury cannot come to a unanimous conclusion.
Speaking with UNILAD, the expert noted that 'there are several potential paths forward'.
Firstly, Judge William Sullivan has the ability to give the jury what is commonly known as an Allen charge, or the 'dynamite charge'.
He will remind jurors to keep an open mind, listen to one another, and reconsider their views based on the evidence.
Put simply: listen to each other and try to reach a decision together.
But the judge cannot tell them what verdict to reach, Karney notes.
What happens if the jury remains deadlocked?
She further explained: "If the jury remains deadlocked after being sent back to deliberate, Judge Sullivan must decide whether further deliberations are likely to be productive or whether the jury is genuinely unable to reach a unanimous verdict."
Ultimately, the legal expert notes, if the judge determines that the jury cannot reach a unanimous verdict, he can declare a mistrial based on a hung jury.
She said: "At that point, people often assume the only choice is a retrial. That is not necessarily true."
'Negotiation' is another possible option.
The expert explained: "The prosecution could decide to offer some form of plea bargain resolution rather than start this enormously expensive, emotionally difficult and highly publicized trial all over again.
"One possibility would be an agreement involving a finding of not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility, followed by psychiatric hospitalization and treatment."
Another possible outcome could be a manslaughter conviction, although the defence is not thought to be pursuing this, as accepting manslaughter would mean accepting criminal responsibility for the deaths.
'A deadlocked jury tells us something significant'
Karney explained that if 12 people who have all heard the same evidence were unable to reach a unanimous conclusion, it would leave prosecution in a complex position.
"Retry the case, potentially negotiate a resolution, or decide not to pursue another trial," she said.
She concluded: "While a hung jury doesn't end the case, it can fundamentally change the case."
Witnesses who have testified at Lindsay Clancy’s trial
Patrick Clancy
After the jury heard the opening statements on 27 July, Clancy’s ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, was the first person to take to the stand.
Patrick testified that Clancy struggled after the birth of their third child, Callan, and that in the months before the January 2023 killings, she told him she was having thoughts of suicide and of harming their children.
He claimed that December 2022 ‘was really where her big spiral started’.
Patrick told the court: “She started to lose a lot of weight, and she became very depressed, and she was having a really hard time.”
After Clancy spent some time in a locked-ward facility, Patrick said he was ‘hopeful' as ‘she seemed much better’.
He later recalled the day of the killings, testifying that Clancy initially ‘seemed in a good mood’ and ‘was having one of her best days’.
But on returning home to find his children dead, he said he ‘saw blood everywhere’.
Around a week later, Clancy called her then-husband from hospital, Patrick said.
“She didn’t talk about our kids, she talked about what she went through,” he testified. “She said she heard a man’s voice telling her that if she didn’t do it now, she would lose her chance - or something like that.”
Elaine Rossi, former nanny
Elaine Rossi, who worked as the Clancy family's nanny from September to December 2022, testified that Clancy was a ‘wonderful mom who loved her kids’.
“She was concerned about their safety, and Callan eating and sleeping. She was a wonderful mother,” she told the court.
Rossi recalled seeing prescription medicine bottles in the house, and that Clancy ‘shared with me she had postpartum and couldn't sleep’.
The nanny also testified that she noticed the mom had lost a significant amount of weight, but she said she never feared for the children's safety.
Timothy Chiappini, state trooper
Timothy Chiappini was tasked with doing a forensic analysis of Clancy's cellphone, testifying that she searched 'can you treat a sociopath' days before her children were killed.
The former detective also read out entries from her notes app. “I'm sad and depressed because I am not able to parent my third child like my first,” one excerpt, dated October 25, 2022, read in part.
Jennifer Tufts, psychiatrist
Tufts, who first began treating Clancy in September 2022, testified that the mom had ‘denied having suicidal thoughts but felt that she was getting close to it’ in December 2022.
Clancy’s defence attorney asked Tufts: “Would it surprise you to know that she called a suicide hotline in that timeframe, not once but twice, and was turned away?”
She replied: “It does surprise me, yes. It surprises me that she called them twice.”
When asked if Tufts had ever asked Clancy about calling the suicide hotlines, the psychiatrist said she didn’t think she had ‘specifically asked that’.
Clancy had more than a dozen sessions, which took place over an online video link, with Tufts. Their final appointment was on January 23, 2023 - the day before the killings, the court heard.
Paula Musgrove, Clancy’s mother
Paula Musgrove described her daughter as a loving and devoted mom whose mental health began to decline in October 2022.
The jury was shown a text from Clancy to her mother from that time; it read: “Mom, will you please come up and stay with me for a bit? I'm really sick. Something is wrong.
“I had horrible insomnia all night, and I just don't know how I am going to get through the day... I started taking the medicine my doctor prescribed for anxiety and I think it's made things worse. It's just really scary and I don't want to be alone.”
Musgrove told the court about a conversation she had with Clancy and her then-husband, Patrick, in December 2022.
“She told us she had thoughts of harming the children,” she said.
Musgrove testified that Clancy grew increasingly fearful of sleeping alone, suffered from insomnia, and became convinced that the numerous psychiatric medications she was being prescribed were ‘destroying her mind’.
Allison Ozga, Clancy’s sister
Ozga testified that when she saw her sister during Thanksgiving 2022, her ‘mood did not look good’ and she ‘didn’t seem very energised’.
Clancy told Ozga that she was experiencing suicidal thoughts every day for a month before the killings, her sister said.
She told the court: “I had this gut feeling that something was off and that she was really struggling, and I asked her if she was safe. She said ‘yes’ at that point.”
Ozga also said she had concerns when she saw Clancy at Cora's birthday in January 2023.
She testified: “I think she looked like she was going through the motions of putting together a birthday party for her daughter. But she looked tired. She looked like she was still struggling.”
Christopher Clancy, Patrick’s father
Clancy’s former father-in-law, Christopher Clancy, testified that she was ‘very mothering’ and protective ‘like any mother would be’.
On how she appeared in December 2022, he told the court: “She was very, very good. She fed them great. She did a lot of things with them …like the all-American family.”
Christopher testified that he ‘knew she [Clancy] was having a hard time sleeping’, adding: “I knew she didn’t feel well … I knew she went to the emergency room where my wife was working.”
When the prosecutor asked Christopher about receiving a call from Patrick on the night of the killings, he said: “It was terrible.”
Susan Clancy, Patrick’s mother
Susan Clancy testified that her former daughter-in-law was a ‘very nurturing, very loving’ and ‘a wonderful mother’ who was ‘begging for help’.
“She had insomnia. She was losing her appetite,” she said. “She was very anxious and sad.”
When asked by the defence if Clancy had been ‘interested at all times in trying to get better and see doctors’, Susan responded: “Very much so.”
Margaret Hamp, Clancy’s former co-worker
Margaret Hamp, who worked with Clancy at the Massachusetts General Hospital, recalled a conversation they had about Andrea Yates, a woman who confessed to drowning her five children in the bath in 2001.
Hamp told the court: “I asked [Clancy] if she had ever heard of the Andrea Yates case and she hadn't.
“I explained that to her and she cried, and she said: 'How could a mother hurt her children?'”
Hamp testified that Clancy ‘loved being a nurse’, adding: “She was compassionate. She was kind. She was a patient advocate.”
Friends of Clancy
Amy Bevins
Amy Bevins, who had known Clancy for 29 years, told jurors she communicated with the mom just days before the killings.
“She had shared that she had been taking a medication that caused her to have some dark thoughts, but that she was going to, or had been weaning, like tapering off that medication,” Bevins testified, later adding: “I remember it being something where there was conveying of hope, and that it was going to be a, you know - we were moving in a positive direction.”
Bethany DeCollibus
Another friend, Bethany DeCollibus, described speaking with Clancy during one of the kids' birthdays in January 2023, where Clancy was apparently struggling with sleep.
"She responded that things haven't gotten any better, and that she feels like a zombie," she testified.
Andrea Hennigan
Andrea Hennigan, who worked with Clancy at the Massachusetts General Hospital, testified that Clancy told her she wouldn’t return to work because she ‘was not in a mental state to take care of patients’ after Callan was born.
“She talked about insomnia and not feeling herself,” she said. “I believe she might have used the words brain fog or something like that.”
Topics: Lindsay Clancy, Crime, US News
Mia Williams