Mistrial Declared in Commonwealth v. Issues Surrounding the Clancy Verdict Split

Plymouth Superior Court recorded a mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy prosecution after jurors reported they could not agree. TMZ's account puts deliberations near 38 hours. The judge said repeated Allen-style returns to the jury room had reached the statutory end of the line.

Clancy has entered not-guilty pleas to first-degree murder counts in the deaths of three children. The government's theory is premeditation. The defense theory is postpartum psychosis compounded by medication. A mistrial does not adopt either theory.

Procedure, not punditry

Defense counsel Kevin Reddington asked the trial judge to hold the panel and take the dispute to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. That bid did not keep the verdict window open. A hung jury returns the case to the prosecutor's charging discretion: retry, plead, or decline.

Patrick Clancy's counsel thanked the court and said the parent would not find closure. That statement has moral weight and no docket effect.

What Court Magazine will track

Notice of retrial, any change of venue request, and whether the medical experts are redesigned for a second panel. We will not republish graphic facts of the deaths.

Source: TMZ mistrial file.