Lindsay Clancy's lawyer files new emergency motion on sidebars

Defense attorney for Lindsay Clancy, the US mother accused of slaughtering her three offspring, charged on Thursday that a solitary holdout juror is obstructing a verdict in the high-profile case. Clancy, 36, neither admits nor denies strangling Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months, but claims her actions were a result of postpartum psychosis, which renders her legally innocent of criminal responsibility.

Her five-week trial, televised and backed by over 80 witnesses, has ignited discussions across the United States about maternal mental health. Kevin Reddington, Clancy's principal lawyer, told a Massachusetts court on Thursday that one juror persistently refuses to accept the legal standard of reasonable doubt. He requested her removal from the 12-person panel, but Judge William Sullivan denied the request, sending her back to continue deliberations on the seventh day.

To achieve a verdict, all 12 jurors must reach a unanimous decision. If they fail, the judge will declare a mistrial, and prosecutors will decide whether to retry the case with a new jury. On Wednesday, Sullivan issued a final "dynamite charge" urging the jurors to persist in their discussions to break the deadlock and prevent a mistrial.

Clancy pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, stating she heard a voice ordering her to kill her children. Her legal team asserts this was caused by postpartum psychosis. Following the killings at her family home in Duxbury, Massachusetts in January 2023, she attempted suicide by jumping from a second-story window, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.

The former nurse now faces life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder. Jurors can also convict Clancy of second-degree murder, manslaughter, or not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility, a verdict resulting in her placement in a psychiatric facility.