Lindsay Clancy Trial: Mistrial and What Comes Next

On the evening of January 24, 2023, Lindsay Clancy’s three children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, were found unconscious in the basement of the family home at 47 Summer Street in Duxbury, Massachusetts. All three died. Clancy, who had jumped from a window, survived with injuries that left her paralyzed from the waist down. She was indicted on three counts each of murder and strangulation, and pleaded not guilty, asserting she was not criminally responsible because of postpartum psychosis. After a seven week trial in Plymouth Superior Court, the jury deadlocked, and on September 4, 2026, Judge William F. Sullivan declared a mistrial. She has been neither convicted nor acquitted.

Status as of October 16, 2026

Clancy, 36, remains charged with three counts of first degree murder and is held at Tewksbury Hospital, a psychiatric facility. Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz has not decided whether to retry her. On October 1, Sullivan denied her motion for a required finding of not guilty. On October 7 or 8 her lawyer, Kevin Reddington, asked to present witnesses and evidence at a November 2 hearing on her motion to dismiss on double jeopardy grounds and on the holdout juror. The court clerk had indicated the judge did not intend to take evidence that day. No retrial date has been set. Reddington has said that because of his caseload he would not be available for a retrial before June.

January 24, 2023

According to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s office, Duxbury police received a 911 call at about 6:11 p.m. reporting a suspected attempted suicide by a woman who had jumped from a window at the house. Police and first responders found Lindsay Clancy, treated her at the scene and took her to a hospital. They then found the three children in the basement, “unconscious and with obvious signs of severe trauma.”

Cora and Dawson were taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth, where they were pronounced dead. Callan was flown to Boston Children’s Hospital and died several days later. The state’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner found that Cora and Dawson died of asphyxia, and Callan of complications of asphyxia.

The Boston Globe reports that the children were strangled with exercise bands, and that afterward Clancy slashed her neck and wrists before jumping from a second story window.

The Charges

Duxbury police called in the Massachusetts State Police detective unit assigned to the District Attorney’s office. On September 15, 2023, a Plymouth County grand jury indicted Clancy, then 33, on three counts of murder and three counts of strangulation. On October 26, 2023, she was arraigned at Tewksbury State Hospital, pleaded not guilty and was held without bail. The District Attorney’s office alleged that she “strangled each child and left them to die in the basement” and that she acted “with deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity and cruelty.”

The Legal Question

The trial did not turn mainly on what happened in the basement. It turned on whether Clancy was criminally responsible. Massachusetts uses the standard adopted in Commonwealth v. McHoul (1967), set out in the Supreme Judicial Court’s model homicide instructions:

“A person is not criminally responsible for his conduct if he has a mental disease or defect, and, as a result of that mental disease or defect, lacks the substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality or wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.”

Three features of that rule shaped the case:

• The burden is on the state. “The defendant has no burden to prove a lack of criminal responsibility.” The Commonwealth had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she was responsible.
• “Appreciate” means more than knowing. The instruction says it means “to understand rather than merely to know.” The state had to show that any illness “did not deprive the defendant of a meaningful understanding of the legal or moral significance of his conduct.”
• A verdict of lack of criminal responsibility is not release. The model instruction tells jurors that after such a verdict the court generally commits the defendant to a mental health facility, reviews the commitment periodically, and may keep the person committed for life while they remain mentally ill and dangerous.

The jury had five options and had to be unanimous on one: not guilty by reason of insanity, not guilty, first degree murder, second degree murder or manslaughter.

The Two Cases Put to the Jury

The defense argued that Clancy was overmedicated and suffering from postpartum psychosis, according to CBS Boston. The Globe reports that she claimed to have hallucinated a man’s voice commanding her to kill herself and her children.

The prosecution argued that she planned the killings and knew right from wrong. After the trial, Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham summarized the theory in court. Buckingham acknowledged that the state’s own evidence showed signs and symptoms of mental illness before the killings, but said that did not mean she was psychotic. She argued that Clancy had a “clear motive” that was “rational,” and that altruistic filicide “is a motive, not evidence of psychosis.” Clancy, she said, felt “she was never going to be the same,” was frustrated with her care, had decided to kill herself, and “was going to take those kids with her because no one could care for them like she could.”

CBS Boston and the Globe both report that Clancy admitted the killings. After the mistrial, Reddington told the court that she “never actually admitted to the killings” and that the prosecution had not proved she killed her children, CNN reported. When asked about it, he said his arguments were not new.

Trial and Deliberations

CBS Boston reported that the jury heard 85 witnesses and deliberated for more than 36 hours over seven days. Twice the jurors reported they were deadlocked, and twice the judge sent them back. Clancy’s supporters, many dressed in pink, attended court each day, CNN reported, and the case drew national attention to maternal mental health.

At the end of the day on Thursday, September 3, the jury appeared split 11 to 1. The foreperson sent a note saying one juror was not following the court’s instructions on reasonable doubt. According to Reddington, the note said the juror “has made statements acknowledging doubt but refuses to apply it to the verdict as the law states.” Sullivan denied a defense motion to dismiss the juror and reread his instructions: “You are required to follow my instructions on the law as I gave them to you.”

The Mistrial, September 4, 2026

On Friday morning, without the jury present, Sullivan refused a defense request to question jurors further. “I’m not going to do a further inquiry of this juror,” he said. “It’s their duty to accept the law as I’ve given it to them.” Reddington said the juror had “lied under oath.”

The jury resumed at about 9:30 a.m. and around 11 a.m. reported a third deadlock: “It is with a heavy heart that we report we are unable to come to a unanimous decision.” Reddington asked for time to seek emergency relief from the Supreme Judicial Court. Defense lawyer Dana Goldblatt argued the motion by video before Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt at 1:30 p.m. The justice declined to intervene. At 2:22 p.m., Sullivan called the jury in and declared a mistrial. Under Massachusetts practice, a mistrial is not official until announced in the jury’s presence.

The Holdout Juror

The Globe reports that the defense’s position is that the lone juror was pushing for conviction despite admitting doubts. Boston 25 News reported that the note indicated 11 jurors agreed and the holdout believed Clancy was guilty. Two weeks after the mistrial, a statement released by the juror’s lawyer said he “didn’t have any doubts” that prosecutors had proved she was criminally responsible.

The juror is called Juror Doe in court. His lawyer, Heather O’Connor, said on September 29 that he wanted “justice for the children” and his privacy, worried for his safety, and believed he had filled out his juror questionnaire truthfully. She noted that neither side moved to excuse him during jury selection. We do not name him.

After the Mistrial

At a status hearing on September 29, 2026, the defense argued a motion for a required finding of not guilty. Defense lawyer Martin Weinberg sought access to juror questionnaires and asked that jury notes and sidebar transcripts not be impounded. Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague argued that releasing deadlock notes would have a “chilling effect.” A lawyer for the Boston Globe asked for access to sidebar discussions. Sullivan took the matters under advisement and told the parties to be ready to discuss a new trial date on November 2. “This is not indicating how I’m going to rule on any of the other motions,” he said.

Outside court, Cruz said: “We’re doing a very thorough review right now, and we’re going to continue to do our job to make sure that we do what’s best in the interest of justice and the interests of the three children.” Asked whether he had decided, he said: “We’re still working on it.”

On October 1, Sullivan denied the motion in a written order: “With respect to the elements of murder and the identity of who committed the alleged crimes, the evidence presented by the Commonwealth in its case in chief … was sufficient to satisfy any rational trier of fact beyond a reasonable doubt.”

In the motion filed in early October, Reddington asked for “a limited inquiry” into the holdout juror, including his confidential questionnaire, phone records from deliberations, and court records relating to his criminal history and a civil restraining order. “Due process demands a hearing when a motion raises a substantial question of juror bias or outside influence,” Reddington wrote. Boston 25 reported that if the double jeopardy motion is denied without an evidentiary hearing, the defense plans to seek appellate review before any retrial.

The Globe noted another possible path: if Cruz reduced the charges to second degree murder, Clancy could waive a jury and have a judge decide the case. Neither side has commented on any plea discussions. Separately, her civil lawyers, Rosemary Scapicchio and Andrew Meyer, are pursuing a medical malpractice lawsuit against her doctors and hospitals.

Public Pressure

The case drew comment far beyond the courtroom. CNN reported that President Donald Trump said: “It’s a terrible situation. Look, she did a horrible, horrible thing. Can’t be worse. But you’ll find out what the price to pay is. There will be a price. It’s going to be a mental institution or jail or something.” At the September 29 hearing Reddington said comments “from Donald Trump on down to Nancy Mace down to (Sen. Ted) Cruz” had called for her execution, and that his own statements were responses to them. He argued that defendants raising lack of criminal responsibility are put “in a conundrum where you have to, in effect, admit culpability,” and that the trial should have been split into two phases.

The holdout juror’s lawyer said the juror had been singled out unfairly among the twelve. “You can never put the cat back in the bag once it’s out there. However, it needs to end,” she said. Outside court, a heckler shouted at Cruz, “You hate women.” He answered, “I don’t hate women.”

Timeline

• January 24, 2023, about 6:11 p.m.: The 911 call. Cora and Dawson are pronounced dead. Callan dies several days later.
• September 15, 2023: Clancy is indicted on three counts each of murder and strangulation.
• October 26, 2023: She is arraigned at Tewksbury State Hospital and pleads not guilty.
• Summer 2026: Her trial runs seven weeks in Plymouth Superior Court, with 85 witnesses.
• September 3, 2026: The foreperson’s note reports an 11 to 1 split.
• September 4, 2026, 2:22 p.m.: Mistrial.
• September 29, 2026: Status hearing. No retrial decision.
• October 1, 2026: The motion for a required finding of not guilty is denied.
• Early October 2026: The defense asks for an evidentiary hearing.
• November 2, 2026: Hearing on double jeopardy and juror motions.

Legal Status

Lindsay Clancy remains charged with three counts of first degree murder in the deaths of Cora, Dawson and Callan Clancy. Her 2026 trial ended in a mistrial on September 4, 2026, after the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. A mistrial is neither a conviction nor an acquittal. The District Attorney has not decided whether to retry her, her motion for a required finding of not guilty was denied on October 1, 2026, and her motion to dismiss on double jeopardy grounds is set for a hearing on November 2, 2026. She is presumed innocent and is held at Tewksbury Hospital.

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