Jurors in the trial of Lindsay Clancy told a judge they were deadlocked and were ordered to keep deliberating, court officials said.
The panel ended a second day of deliberations on Friday without reaching a verdict in the case accusing Clancy of killing her three children in the basement of the family home in Massachusetts in 2023.
The jury began deliberations on Thursday afternoon and met again on Friday. At one point jurors asked to view a knife Clancy used to cut herself and bags containing empty prescription pill bottles found in her house.
Members of the jury are expected to return to the courthouse on Monday. They may find Clancy guilty of murder, convict her of the lesser crime of manslaughter, or acquit if they conclude she lacked criminal responsibility because of psychiatric problems.
Defense Claims Mental Illness While Prosecutors Say She Knew What She Did
Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility, the defense said. She did not testify during the trial, but jurors heard lengthy testimony from medical professionals who treated her.
The defense told jurors Clancy did not deny strangling her children, but that she had lost her grip on reality due to postpartum psychosis, a rare illness that can follow childbirth. Court testimony described prior treatment for worsening mental health, including a stay in a psychiatric hospital months before the killings.
Prosecutors argued Clancy knew what she was doing. They said she strangled the children because she was depressed and tired of living and made a conscious choice to kill them before attempting suicide.
The killings occurred less than three weeks after Clancy was discharged from a psychiatric hospital, prosecutors said. After strangling the children identified as Cora, Dawson and Callan Clancy, ages 5, 3 and 8 months, she cut herself and then jumped from a second floor window, according to court accounts. She remains paralyzed from the waist down.
Jurors also heard from friends and relatives Clancy had told about her mental health problems. Medical experts called by both the prosecution and defense disagreed about her likely state of mind at the time.
The trial coverage included a note that the story discusses suicide. Help is available through the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the US by calling or texting 988, the court notice said.
