Overview
- The 12-person jury — nine women and three men — told Judge William F. Sullivan on Tuesday that it could not reach a unanimous verdict after roughly 17 hours of deliberations spread over several days.
- Jurors have reviewed testimony from more than 80 witnesses and about 300 exhibits in the six-week trial, and during deliberations they asked to see specific items including Clancy’s prescription pill bottles and the knife she used in her suicide attempt.
- Prosecutors say Clancy understood and intentionally killed her three children on Jan. 24, 2023, while the defense argues she was in severe postpartum psychosis and therefore not criminally responsible.
- If jurors eventually convict on first-degree murder she faces life without parole, while a finding of not criminally responsible would likely lead to commitment at a state psychiatric hospital rather than release.
- The deadlock leaves key next steps to the court: the judge may give further jury instructions and order more deliberations, or if the panel remains split he could declare a mistrial and allow prosecutors to decide whether to retry the case.