What happens if there’s a hung jury in Lindsay Clancy case as jurors send second note to judge

The jury in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial has once again told the judge that they are unable to reach a verdict on whether she is criminally responsible for killing her three children. Jurors sent a note to Judge William Sullivan at around 2:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday, their fifth day of deliberations, stating for the second day in a row that they have not been able to come to a unanimous decision.

Sullivan ordered them to keep trying, a common instruction in criminal trials when juries indicate they are having trouble reaching a verdict. Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, doesn't deny strangling her children, but she says postpartum psychosis led to her actions. Prosecutors argue that she knew what she was doing.

The 36-year-old has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility. Jurors heard testimony from relatives and doctors about how her mental health declined in the months before the killings and how her treatment included several medications and a short stay in a psychiatric hospital. Medical experts hired by the prosecution and the defense reached sharply different conclusions about her psychiatric state when she killed the children.

What happens if they can’t reach a verdict? A mistrial will be declared and the case essentially goes back to the same status as before the trial, with the 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse charged with murder and held at a psychiatric hospital awaiting resolution of the criminal case. Prosecutors will decide whether to try again with a new jury.

If they do, the jury selection process will begin again and a new trial will be scheduled. Prosecutors could also offer a plea deal to Clancy, said Brad Bailey, a Boston defense attorney and former prosecutor who is not involved in the case. Clancy doesn’t deny strangling her children at their home south of Boston, but says postpartum psychosis led to her actions.

After the killings, her husband found her badly injured in the yard, where she landed after jumping from a second-story window. She was left paralyzed from the waist down. Prosecutors argue she knew what she was doing.