The judge in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the US mother accused of murdering her three young children, has officially declared a mistrial.
It comes after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. The New York Post reports on claims by Ms Clancy’s lawyers that a single juror was against granting her an acquittal.
“I hope that guy can sleep well at night,” said Ms Clancy’s lawyer Kevin Reddington after the case collapsed.
A foreperson had told the judge on Thursday that a lone holdout had refused to follow the court’s instructions about reasonable doubt, hinting to possible conflicts within the jury room.
This led to Clancy’s lawyer demanding that the juror be kicked off the case.
Clancy, 36, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder over the deaths of Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months. She did not deny killing them at the family home in Massachusetts in January 2023.
However, Clancy’s defence lawyers argued that she was not criminally responsible, claiming overmedication caused postpartum psychosis.
The live-streamed case has polarised America, with prosecutors arguing that Clancy planned the killings and knew right from wrong when she strangled the children.
The jury of nine women and three men deliberated for some 35 hours without reaching a verdict, following a trial which spanned nearly six weeks.
On Friday, the jury was split 11 to one, as one juror repeatedly held out against acquittal. The panel has twice previously sent the judge notes saying it could not reach a unanimous decision. Judge William Sullivan said he wanted to declare a mistrial, given that Massachusetts law does not allow for majority decisions.
David Meier, the lawyer for Patrick Clancy, Lindsay Clancy’s ex-husband, told CBS in a statement that the prospect of reliving the tragedy through another trial was“extraordinarily painful.”
“Patrick Clancy is grateful to the Court and to the jurors for their hard work, their commitment, and their perseverance,” the statement read.
“The loss of Patrick’s children is something from which he will never recover and from which there will never be closure.
“The prospect of reliving this tragedy through another trial is extraordinarily painful – for Patrick, for his family, and for all of us.”
President Donald Trump weighed in on the case, describing it as a “terrible situation”.
“Look, she did a horrible, horrible thing. Can’t be worse, but you’ll find out what the price to pay is. … But I guess they gotta go through another trial. It’s too bad,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
In heated scenes at the Massachusetts courthouse, Judge William Sullivan said, on Friday morning US time, that the case was to be stopped.
“It is with a heavy heart that we will not be able to come to a unanimous decision,” the judge said reading the panel’s third note.
Mr Sullivan said he didn’t have “any choice but to declare a mistrial”.
“Members of the jury, at this point I’m going to declare that the jury is deadlocked and I am going to declare a mistrial,” he said after dismissing an appeal from Mr Reddington for an 11-th hour emergency stay blocking the mistrial.
Ms Clancy will remain in custody at the secure Tewksbury Hospital, north of Boston, while the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office decides where to take the high-profile case next.