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The jury in the Lindsay Clancy case was sent home on Aug. 31, as the third day of deliberations in the high-profile Massachusetts murder trial did not see them reach a verdict.
Clancy, 36, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder related to the strangling deaths of her children Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months. Clancy acknowledges killing the children in January 2023, but her defense has argued she was not criminally responsible for her acts.
The jury was handed the case on Aug. 27 and has deliberated for about 17 hours. They heard weeks of testimony from more than 80 witnesses during the trial.
“You know the instructions,” Judge William Sullivan told jurors as he set the start of day four of deliberations for 9 a.m. ET. “Stay the course.”
Lindsay Clancy watches the jury file in at the of the day without a verdict in the triple murder trial of the Duxbury mother in Plymouth Superior Court on Monday, August 31, 2026
The area around the courthouse has seen hundreds of Clancy supporters, largely women wearing pink, at times during the trial, according to The Patriot Ledger – a part of the USA TODAY Network. However, on the third day of deliberations local news reported a largely subdued scene. “I expected more of a ‘Karen Read’ kind of chaos,” Mary Drysdale, a retiree who was outside the courthouse on Aug. 31, told the Boston Globe. “It’s kinda chill.”
What did prosecutors and Clancy’s defense argue during trial
Prosecutors allege Clancy planned the killings by sending her husband to pick up takeout food and medicine, then, while he was gone, strangled the children with exercise bands. Afterward, Clancy cut her wrists and neck and jumped out of a second-story window, leaving her paralyzed.
Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham painted Clancy as a “controlling, meticulous and manipulative” mother during opening statements, arguing that she committed the murders because she could no longer control “every little detail” of her family’s life.
Postpartum psychosis: What to know amid the Lindsay Clancy trial
Clancy’s defenses argued during the trial that she is not guilty because she lacks criminal responsibility – more commonly known as an insanity defense – because she was suffering from postpartum depression and psychosis at the time of the killings.
In his opening statement, Reddington focused on Clancy’s struggle with postpartum depression, anxiety and ultimately psychosis. He alleged that overmedication culminated in her hearing a male voice telling her to commit the killings.
The jury asked Judge William Sullivan to view empty pill bottles and the knife found on the nightstand in the Clancy’s upstairs bedroom, defense attorney Reddington told The Patriot Ledger – part of the USA TODAY Network – on Aug. 28.
Contributing: Peter Blandino – The Patriot Ledger
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lindsay Clancy trial: Jury sent home after third day of deliberations
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