Commonwealth v. Lindsay Clancy

Will the jury find Lindsay Clancy criminally responsible (guilty) for killing her three children?

Court: Plymouth County Superior Court, Massachusetts (Hon. William Sullivan)
Division: Trial Court

Where the case stands

Jury deadlocked after five full days of deliberations as of Sept 2; judge has told jurors to keep deliberating and could declare a mistrial if the deadlock holds

Background

Duxbury, Mass. labor-and-delivery nurse who killed her three children — Cora (5), Dawson (3), and Callan (8 months) — at the family home on Jan. 24, 2023, then jumped from a second-story window, leaving her paralyzed. Her defense concedes she caused the deaths and rests entirely on postpartum psychosis. The most closely watched maternal-infanticide insanity trial in decades, livestreamed daily.

Charges

Murder of her three children (Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; Callan, 8 months), killed by strangulation at the family home in Duxbury on Jan. 24, 2023

The arguments

Prosecution/State: Clancy acted intentionally and planned the killings before faking a suicide attempt; she understood her actions were wrong and could conform her conduct to the law — the two-prong Massachusetts criminal-responsibility standard. Prosecution expert Dr. Avram Mack testified her mental state was relatively stable, with normal, goal-oriented thinking.

Defense: Clancy was in the throes of postpartum psychosis with command hallucinations and delusions — defense expert Dr. Phillip Resnick testified she was "frankly psychotic" and believed her body was taken over by an external force — so she could not appreciate wrongfulness or control her conduct; the defense also cites overmedication.

The record

Daily courtroom video. The full trial has been livestreamed (NBC Boston, Boston.com, Court TV), including both experts' testimony and Clancy's medical history.
Dueling psychiatric experts. Dr. Phillip Resnick (defense) vs. Dr. Avram Mack (prosecution) on whether she was psychotic on Jan. 24, 2023.
Planning evidence. Prosecution evidence that she searched and planned around the killings and sent her husband on errands, offered to show premeditation and sanity.

The pre-ruling assessment, kept here for the record

Insanity acquittals are rare with juries, but this defense is unusually strong: the defense concedes the acts and both sides agree she had some mental illness; the fight is over the Massachusetts two-prong responsibility standard. A hung jury is a live possibility — that outcome would void the market.

What the court did · September 5, 2026 Voided — no verdict reached, wagers refunded

Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial on September 4, 2026 after the jury deadlocked 11-1 following six days of deliberations — no verdict was reached, so the market is voided and all wagers refunded.

Sources

Public record

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