The jury in Lindsay Clancy‘s murder trial spent a fifth day deliberating Wednesday, reported for a second time that it was deadlocked, received a rare instruction from the judge urging jurors to keep working toward a verdict and ultimately went home without reaching a unanimous decision.
The latest developments brought the closely watched Massachusetts murder trial a step closer to the possibility of a mistrial, though jurors are scheduled to return Thursday to continue deliberating.
The panel of nine women and three men resumed deliberations Wednesday after telling Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan a day earlier that it could not unanimously agree on a verdict.
When jurors again reported they remained deadlocked Wednesday, Sullivan delivered a Tuey-Rodriguez charge, a formal instruction encouraging them to continue deliberating while reminding them not to abandon honestly held beliefs simply to reach a unanimous verdict.
Jurors continued deliberating for several more hours after receiving the instruction before Sullivan dismissed them for the day without a verdict.
Named for two Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decisions, the Tuey-Rodriguez charge encourages jurors to carefully consider one another’s views while preserving sincerely held convictions. It is generally considered the final procedural step before a judge may declare a mistrial if jurors remain unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
“The reasoning is that it often works,” retired Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Thomas Drechsler previously told Fox News Digital. “It encourages the jurors to rethink their own feelings in light of what other jurors feel, reminds them that no one’s ever going to be in a better position to decide this than them.”
But if jurors again report they are deadlocked after receiving the instruction, Drechsler said, “I think there’s a high likelihood that it will end up in a mistrial.”
The jury must determine whether Clancy was criminally responsible when she killed her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan — inside the family’s Duxbury, Massachusetts, home Jan. 24, 2023.
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Clancy, 36, a former labor and delivery nurse, does not dispute killing the children. Her defense argues she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and should be found not criminally responsible. Prosecutors contend she carefully planned the killings, knew right from wrong and concealed disturbing thoughts from medical providers because she understood they were wrong.
Wednesday also brought developments outside the courtroom after Dawn Light, the woman accused of filming jurors as they left the courthouse Tuesday, was arraigned on a witness intimidation-related charge. She pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors said a video recovered from her cellphone showed Clancy jurors leaving the courthouse, while Light maintained she was trying to catch a glimpse of Clancy and did not realize she had recorded jurors.
A judge released Light on personal recognizance and ordered her to stay away from the courthouse, have no contact with jurors or witnesses and refrain from sharing any images.
Before jurors resumed deliberations Wednesday morning, Sullivan also reminded those in the courtroom that orders protecting jurors and other participants are “being enforced and will be enforced,” though he did not specifically reference Light’s arrest.
Jurors will return Thursday to resume deliberations, with the possibility of a mistrial looming if they again report they cannot reach a unanimous verdict.
Fox News Digital’s Adam Sabes contributed to this report.
