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There has been a lengthy sidebar in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial in Massachusetts for an unknown reason as deliberations have surpassed 34 hours without a verdict. The jury resumed deliberations for a sixth day Thursday, even though they’ve told the judge twice that they’re deadlocked.
Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan sent the jurors back into deliberations Wednesday afternoon with one last instruction, known as a “dynamite charge.” It’s a last resort jury instruction to try to get a verdict. The nine women and three men have deliberated for more than 33 hours since getting the case last Thursday, August 27.
Clancy has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the strangulation deaths of her three children – 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan – in their Duxbury home on Jan. 24, 2023.
There was a lengthy sidebar when attorneys returned to the courtroom around 3 p.m.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington was expressive, waving his hands and gesturing toward Clancy during the sidebar, according to WBZ-TV’s Kristina Rex, who was in the courtroom.
At one point during the discussion, Reddington returned to the defense table. He pushed Clancy’s wheelchair up to the bench to join the conversation. Each juror was called to the sidebar individually, briefly meeting with the judge and attorneys for about 20 seconds each.
“I think that we’re at the end of the road here,” CBS News legal contributor Caroline Polisi said Thursday morning. “I think it’s very unlikely we’re going to get a verdict. I think most likely the jury is going to come in today, deliberate for a few more hours, really just to appease the judge, then tell them, you know, tell him we’re hopelessly deadlocked. At that point, he really is required to declare a mistrial because anything more pushing them really gets into a coercive verdict, which is highly appealable.”
Polisi said prosecutors have to think hard about how they want to move forward with the Clancy case if this ends in a mistrial. Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington said he would be ready for a second trial “next week.”
“Prosecutors and defense attorneys are going to want to poll those jurors after this potential mistrial because that will shape their decision whether to move forward, how they frame their case going forward. We might see a completely different theory of this case. If it gets tried a second time,” Polisi said.
She said it’s no surprise the jury is divided because public opinion nationwide on the case is split as well.
“It’s a microcosm, right? It’s not shocking that we’re at a complete deadlock, because look at everybody else out here, where nobody can agree out here. So why would the jury agree?” Polisi said.
Jurors were given the option to unanimously vote for one of five options for Clancy – not guilty by reason of insanity, not guilty, first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter.
Reddington said his client was not criminally responsible for killing her children because she was overmedicated and suffering from postpartum psychosis. Prosecutors said Clancy planned the killings and knew right from wrong when she strangled the children.
If the jury convicts her of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, or manslaughter, she will go to prison. If jurors find her 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.
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