A deadlocked jury in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial was ordered to keep deliberating after receiving a rare judicial instruction designed to break the impasse.
The panel of nine women and three men sent a second note Wednesday announcing they could not reach consensus, prompting Plymouth Judge William Sullivan to deliver the so-called “Tuey-Rodriguez” charge. Local jurists have nicknamed the instruction the “Dynamite Charge” for its power to push stalled juries toward agreement.
The jurors had already signaled trouble Tuesday with their first note declaring an impasse. Clancy, 36, of Duxbury, faces first-degree murder charges for the strangulation deaths of her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan — on January 24, 2023. After killing them, she attempted suicide by jumping from a second-story window, an act that left her paralyzed from the waist down.
Her defense hinges on a claim of severe postpartum psychosis. Clancy wants jurors to find her not guilty by reason of insanity, asserting she hallucinated a voice commanding her to kill the children. Prosecutors counter that she meticulously planned and carried out the murders, showing full awareness of her actions.
Both sides rested after 21 days of testimony that began with Patrick Clancy, Lindsay’s ex-husband, taking the stand as the first witness last month. Patrick Clancy, who has since relocated to New York City and remarried infertility specialist Rachel Danis, provided jurors with a detailed account of his former wife’s mental deterioration.
He testified that Lindsay Clancy had repeatedly sought help in the months before the killings. She began seeing a psychiatrist, called a suicide hotline twice, checked herself into a mental institution for five days, and sought treatment from two perinatal clinics. Despite these efforts, Patrick Clancy testified, she “kept getting worse and worse.” He also told jurors she had confided thoughts of harming the children.
The defense, led by attorney Kevin Reddington, emphasized that Lindsay Clancy’s decline was worsened by psychiatric medications. Patrick Clancy testified that at least 13 different drugs were prescribed to her by five separate providers from November 2022 through the day before the murders. The medications targeted anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, and included anti-psychotic drugs.
Patrick Clancy gave harrowing testimony about discovering the crime scene. He recalled returning home to find Lindsay Clancy in the backyard with slits on her wrists and throat after her fall from the window. He then rushed inside and found his three children dead in the basement.
“She killed the kids,” Patrick Clancy could be heard screaming during the 911 call played for jurors.
Lindsay Clancy repeatedly broke down in tears during her ex-husband’s testimony, attending the proceedings in a wheelchair due to her paralysis.
The Tuey-Rodriguez instruction represents a last resort for judges facing hung juries, strongly encouraging panel members to continue working toward consensus while respecting each other’s views. The charge does not compel any juror to abandon a firmly held conviction.