WATCH LIVE: Judge declares mistrial in Lindsay Clancy case after lastditch appeal denied
Sep 04, 2026
Watch live coverage from NBC10 Boston in the video player atop this story or on YouTube. Recap what happened and get more analysis tonight on NBC10 Boston’s “Commonwealth Confidential,” live at 7 p.m.
What to KnowLindsay Clancy strangled her children — Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 m
onths — on Jan. 24, 2023, in their Duxbury, Mass., home after sending her then-husband Patrick out for some errands. She jumped out of the home’s second-story window and was paralyzed.She was charged with three counts of murder; defense attorney Kevin Reddington said she was not criminally responsible due to bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis.The case has attracted international attention, both for the issues around mental health and criminal justice that it’s raised as well as alternative theories about what happened that it’s spawned on social media.After a weekslong trial, the jury deliberated for seven days, reporting being deadlocked several times. Their verdict slip included five options: Not guilty, not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility, guilty of murder in the first degree, guilty of murder in the second-degree and manslaughter.On Friday, the jury wrote, “It is with a heavy heart that we report we are unable to come to a unanimous decision and will not be able to,” leading Judge William Sullivan to say he intended to declare a mistrial. But Sullivan granted a one-hour emergency stay so Reddington can appeal.The Supreme Judicial Court heard that appeal and quickly denied it, letting Sullivan go ahead with the mistrial.
The judge in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial declared a mistrial on Friday, the seventh day of deliberations, after a dramatic last-minute appeal from the defense.
The jury got the case in Massachusetts’ Plymouth Superior Court last Thursday, following nearly two hours of closing arguments. Several times this week, the jury told Judge William Sullivan they were deadlocked, but were instructed to keep working.
Clancy’s defense filed an emergency appeal to Massachusetts’ highest court, the Supreme Judicial Court, to intervene — read it below. But it was denied, and Sullivan went ahead with the mistrial Friday afternoon.
Get updates from inside and outside court, as well as reaction and what’s next, below:
...read more
read less