Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial returned to the courtroom soon after they resumed their deliberations Tuesday and announced they could not reach a verdict.
Coming near the start of the fourth day of deliberations, this was the first time the jury gave any indication they were at an impasse. On Friday, the jurors had asked to look at a knife that Clancy used to cut herself and bags with empty prescription pill bottles found in her house.
But in response to their announcement, Judge William Sullivan told jurors to keep deliberating.
“I know that this was a long trial, all right,” Sullivan said. “I know there were over 80 witnesses. There were over 300 exhibits. But because of that, I’m going to ask you to go back out.”
So what would it mean if the jury can’t come to a decision?
Under Massachusetts law, Sullivan can only tell the jury to continue to deliberating one more time, unless they consent to additional deliberations. If they come back deadlocked a third time, the judge can declare a mistrial.
The second deadlock announcement could be met with the judge reading what’s known as the Tuey Rodriguez charge, a set of instructions that would send the jury back into deliberations alongside several reminders. The instructions were most recently in headlines during the highly watched Karen Read trial.
The instructions read in part:
“The verdict to which each juror agrees must of course be his or her own verdict, the result of his or her own convictions, and not merely an acquiescence in the conclusion of the other jurors. Still, in order to bring six minds to a unanimous result, you must examine the issues you have to decide with candor and with a proper regard and respect for each other’s opinions. You should consider that it is desirable that the case be decided. You should consider that you have been selected in the same manner, and from the same source, as any future jury would be.“
The instructions are up to a judge’s discretion, and can be controversial.
A footnote in the instructions states, “It is appropriate for the judge to give such a charge when the jury is deadlocked, but because it ‘has a certain ‘sting’ to it,’ it should not be given prematurely, and digression from the recommended language is discouraged.”
If the jury can’t reach a verdict, prosecutors would have to decide whether to retry the case. If a mistrial were declared for some other reason, the next steps could depend on the circumstances.
Here’s a look at some of the other possible outcomes:
If Clancy is convicted, her sentence could be as severe as life in prison without the possibility of parole.
If she’s found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, the court will decide whether she can be released from custody or should remain confined in a state mental health facility.
The jury could find her guilty of murder or the lesser crime of manslaughter, or it could acquit her if it finds that she wasn’t in control of herself due to psychiatric problems.
In his instructions, Sullivan told the jury that they will consider three counts of murder in the first degree for each of the children but can consider murder in the second degree.
“If you find the defendant guilty of murder you shall decide the degree of murder,” he told the jury.
The judge said a defendant may form the required intent needed to prove a murder charge and act with premeditation even if she suffered from a mental impairment or consumed prescription.
Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, doesn’t deny strangling her children but says postpartum psychosis led to her actions. Prosecutors argue she knew what she was doing. Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility.
Similar cases have led to insanity verdicts.
Possibly the best-known is Andrea Yates, who drowned her five children in a bathtub in Texas in 2001. Her attorneys said she suffered from postpartum psychosis and believed killing her children would save them from hell.
Her initial murder conviction was overturned, and in a retrial she was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a state mental hospital.
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