PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial were sent home Tuesday afternoon after failing to reach a unanimous verdict and asking to recess for the day. Deliberations resume Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, at 9 a.m. at Plymouth Superior Court before Judge William F. Sullivan.

The Boston Globe reported that Sullivan returned to the bench about 3:30 p.m. and said the panel wanted to stop for the day and come back Wednesday morning. After the jurors entered, he told them he would excuse them until then, thanked them for their “commitment,” and reminded them not to consume outside coverage or discuss the case overnight. Boston.com quoted him: “I just want to thank you for all your hard work and commitment so far in this case. You’ve come this far — do not read anything, don’t listen to anything, don’t talk about this case.” CBS Boston recorded the same thank-you language and that jurors asked to be dismissed around 3:30 p.m.

The afternoon recess came hours after a morning deadlock note. Insanity Developing reported that first note Tuesday: shortly after 10 a.m., Sullivan read, “After many hours of deliberation, we are unable to come to a unanimous decision.” He sent the jury back, citing more than 80 witnesses and more than 300 exhibits, the Globe reported. A first deadlock note is not a mistrial. He did not give a dynamite charge Tuesday and did not end the trial.

The 12-person jury — nine women and three men — has now deliberated about 23 hours over four days, the Globe said. CBS Boston put the total at more than 23 hours since the case went to the panel last Thursday. Jurors sat part of Thursday and all of Friday, Monday, and Tuesday.

NBC News said Clancy, wearing a green top, looked at the jurors as Sullivan thanked them. Defense attorney Kevin Reddington told reporters he does not know what the deadlock means. “I don’t know that it’s a good sign, a bad sign or any sign,” he said. “They’re working hard to try to come to a decision.” Before court, he said he would “absolutely” try the case again if the jury hung.

If the panel reports another deadlock, Massachusetts practice allows Sullivan to deliver a Tuey-Rodriguez instruction — the so-called “dynamite charge” — pressing jurors to re-examine their views without abandoning sincerely held convictions, as NBC News, Boston.com, and the Globe described. CBS Boston reporter Kristina Rex summarized the typical sequence as a first deadlock sending the jury back, a second triggering Tuey-Rodriguez, and a third opening the door to a mistrial. NBC News noted that under Massachusetts law a judge can send a deadlocked jury back, but not more than twice unless the jury consents. No dynamite charge has been given. No mistrial has been declared.

Clancy, 36, a former labor-and-delivery nurse from Duxbury, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the Jan. 24, 2023, deaths of Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months. She has pleaded not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility. She has admitted the killings, then cutting her wrists and neck and jumping from a second-story window; she appears in court in a wheelchair after a spinal injury. The defense argues postpartum psychosis. Prosecutors argue she planned the killings and knew right from wrong. Verdict options include first- or second-degree murder, manslaughter, not guilty, or not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility. The prosecution must prove criminal responsibility beyond a reasonable doubt.

This story discusses suicide and the deaths of children. The national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is 988. For postpartum mental-health help, the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline is 1-833-852-6262 (1-833-TLC-MAMA).

Sources