Mistrial in Lindsay Clancy case as jury deadlocks; defense says DA 'doesn't have a case'

Mistrial Declared in Lindsay Clancy Murder Trial

Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy on Friday, after jurors reported for the third time that they were hopelessly deadlocked. The jury, which had deliberated for roughly 38 hours, stood at 11-1, according to The Boston Herald. The trial had spanned more than 20 days of testimony, with jurors hearing from 84 witnesses, as reported by MassLive.

Clancy, a Massachusetts woman, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children: Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months old. She does not dispute killing her children at their home in January 2023, before attempting suicide by jumping out of a second-floor window, which left her paralyzed. Her defense argued that she suffered from postpartum psychosis and, as a result, lacked criminal responsibility. Jurors had been tasked with deciding whether Clancy, despite her mental illness, had the 'substantial capacity' to control her behavior and to know the killings were wrong.

Defense Attorney Responds

Following the mistrial, Clancy's attorney, Kevin Reddington, spoke to media outside the courthouse in Plymouth. He said the outcome was not a moral victory but a "very sad case" and "not a time for gloating, bragging, expressing victory." Reddington cast the mistrial as a devastating blow to the prosecution, saying Plymouth District Attorney Tim Cruz had no business treating the outcome as any kind of success and accusing him of trying to "crow" over a case he argued jurors had already rejected.

"We had 11 jurors ready to acquit her," Reddington said. "Cruz knows that he was crushed. He doesn't have a case." Reddington also said the lone holdout juror "stole seven weeks" from the other 11 jurors, deprived Clancy of a verdict, and cheated all the families of closure.

Cruz, for his part, said Friday he would "meet with our team" to "address this case further at the appropriate time in the context of official court proceedings." He thanked the jury and said the emotional trial "has always been about getting justice for those three little babies." Cruz did not say whether his office will retry the case, and he said there would "be no decisions made today" on the prospect of another trial. He also said the case was solely about Clancy's actions: "I'm proud of the part of the work we did in this prosecution because this case is not about the health care system or about how women are treated in it or what diagnoses there are in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)."

The judge set a status hearing for Sept. 29, according to MassLive. Reddington said he plans to file a motion and, if it is denied, a date will be set for a new trial.

Civil Suit Targets Medical Providers

Meanwhile, Clancy's civil attorneys are pressing forward with a lawsuit against the medical system they say failed her. "We plan on holding each and every doctor and … hospital responsible for how they failed Lindsay time and time and time again," attorney Rosemary Scapicchio said outside Plymouth Superior Court on Friday, as reported by The Boston Herald.

The civil suit argues that the medical system failed to properly diagnose Clancy's postpartum bipolar disorder, instead subjecting her to an "uncoordinated course of polypharmacy" that precipitated a psychotic break. "She has to go to a second trial because of their negligence, and it's devastating," Scapicchio said. "Lindsay wakes up every day, and the first thing she thinks of is her kids … that doesn't go away ever, and we need to make things right."

The lawsuit lists doctors Jennifer Tufts, Alia Goodheart, Zobeida Diaz and Rebecca Jollotta as defendants, along with Aster Mental Health, South Shore Health System, McLean Hospital and Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island. Doctors listed in the suit testified during the criminal trial that they treated Clancy for depression and anxiety, but she never displayed psychosis symptoms leading up to the tragedy.

Medical malpractice attorney Andrew Meyer, also representing Clancy, said: "All those doctors … that let her go without treatment, overprescribed and misprescribed drugs, as alleged in the complaint, it's all going to be brought out." Meyer added that in the civil case, "It's going to be brought out more in the civil case as to the poor medicine that she received … that let her down, her family down and obviously caused the tragedy."

Scapicchio also criticized the language used to describe women's mental health struggles, saying, "They are doing a disservice to the entire population of women that need care after they have a child." She said, "Let's talk about the names they label women who are either depressed or have hormonal imbalances. They call it the baby blues." And: "You think for a second that if a man had erectile dysfunction, they'd be calling it penis blues? No, because it minimizes what they're suffering from, and we are here to change that on behalf of Lindsay."

The mistrial has left the criminal case unresolved, while the civil case continues to advance, with Clancy's legal team vowing to pursue accountability against the medical providers involved in her care.