The jury in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial has informed Judge William Sullivan that it cannot reach a unanimous verdict, throwing the high-profile case into uncertainty.
Judge Sullivan responded by urging jurors to continue reviewing the facts of the case and sent them back to deliberate further.
If the jury foreperson returns again with another deadlock notice, the judge must then decide whether the panel has deliberated long enough to justify declaring a mistrial.
Should a mistrial be declared, the prosecution would then determine whether to retry the case or negotiate a plea deal with the defendant.
When a jury appears hopelessly deadlocked, a judge in Massachusetts may read aloud what are known as Tuey-Rodriguez instructions, called an Allen Charge at the national level.
These special instructions, sometimes called a “dynamite charge,” ask jurors to consider the reasonableness of their own positions alongside those held by fellow jurors.
“The purpose is to encourage jurors to re-examine their positions, consider differing viewpoints and work toward a unanimous verdict without abandoning their sincerely held convictions.”
The 12 jurors, nine women and three men, are tasked with weighing complex legal issues alongside extensive medical and pharmaceutical data tied to the deaths of three children.
The jury sent a question Tuesday morning alerting Judge William F. Sullivan that a unanimous verdict remained out of reach after hearing from over 80 witnesses and reviewing more than 300 exhibits.
They deliberated for approximately six hours on Tuesday, bringing total deliberation time to about 23 hours spread across four days.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington stated that he would defend Clancy again if the case results in a hung jury and proceeds to retrial.
“I have been predicting that there is a very good chance this could end with a hung jury,” one legal analyst said, adding that a mistrial declaration appears increasingly likely after successive deadlock notes.
The analyst further stated, “Now, I expect the judge is going to get a second and then a third deadlock note after which he has to declare a mistrial.”
The case draws comparisons to the recent Massachusetts murder trial of Karen Read, whose first trial ended in a hung jury after 20 hours of deliberation before she was eventually found not guilty in her subsequent trial.
Read, 46, was accused of striking her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her car and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in January 2022, allegations she consistently denied while alleging a law enforcement cover-up.
