How long could the Lindsay Clancy jury remain deadlocked?
Karen Read's first trial ended with a hung jury. Here's a look at how those deliberations played out as the Lindsay Clancy jury says it is deadlocked.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the jury in Lindsay Clancy's murder trial informed the judge that they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict, describing their situation as "deadlocked." Judge William Sullivan subsequently ordered the jurors to continue deliberating, and they persisted until around 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, at which point they left the courtroom without a verdict. This scenario mirrors a few high-profile cases in Massachusetts in recent years where juries were deadlocked.
One notable example is Emanuel Lopes, who was tried for the murder of Weymouth Police Sgt. Michael Chesna in 2018. Lopes' first trial in 2023 resulted in a mistrial due to a hung jury, with the jury reporting to the judge three times that they were deadlocked. After six days and 32 hours of deliberations, they ultimately reached a unanimous guilty verdict.
In another case, Karen Read faced a deadlocked jury in her 2024 trial for murder, leading to a mistrial after five days and 27 hours of deliberation, with the jury signaling their deadlock three times before declaring a mistrial.
In both the Read and Lopes cases, the judge read the jurors the "dynamite charge," also known as the "Tuey-Rodriguez instruction," which encourages them to reach a verdict. This instruction emphasizes that the jury's intelligence, impartiality, and competence warrant them to decide the case. If the jury remains deadlocked a third time, the judge has the discretion to declare a mistrial. In the event of a mistrial, the defendant would be released from custody and returned to the psychiatric care facility.
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