PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Lindsay Clancy was “scared” as the jury deliberated for a second day to determine whether she is guilty of killing her three children in 2023, her defense lawyer said Friday.
“She’s nervous. Sad. Scared. Same as she has been,” Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington told reporters at the courthouse Friday, according to NBC Boston.
Before the jury went home without a decision Friday afternoon, there was an anxiousness in the air and reporters lining the hallways at Plymouth Superior Court. The murder trial is in its home stretch after five weeks of testimony from more than 80 witnesses.
Deliberations resumed Friday at 9:15 a.m., and the jury had its first question around 10 a.m., about four hours into deliberations.
Judge William Sullivan called a recess after the question was brought to his attention, just after he sought the opposing attorneys for a sidebar. The question was not publicly disclosed, and the jury was never brought into the courtroom.
Clancy’s mother, father and sister sat in court Friday behind her.
Reddington, however, told reporters in Plymouth that the jury wanted to see the bag of pills he showed during closings, as well as some other pill bottles and a knife that were all entered as evidence in the case.
It’s typical for a jury to have questions as it deliberates, especially in such a winding case with competing storylines and troves of evidence. Juries are also known to ask questions about the instructions given by the judge, and the law and how to apply it.
Clancy, 36, is facing charges of fatally strangling her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — on Jan. 24, 2023.
The jury — comprised of nine women and three men — must decide if Clancy is guilty of first-degree murder in relation to the killings. If she is convicted of first-degree murder, she faces life in prison.
Throughout the trial, the defense has argued that she was in the throes of postpartum psychosis when she killed her children, before trying to kill herself by hurling herself out of her Duxbury, Massachusetts, home’s second-story window.
Reddington has said that Clancy was compelled to act on auditory hallucinations, a symptom of the postpartum psychosis, while her then-husband was out running errands that night.
The prosecution, though, argued that even though Clancy was clearly struggling with her mental health, she was not actually in psychosis and therefore had control over her actions. Prosecutors have said that Clancy deliberately chose to kill her kids before trying to kill herself and that she planned their murders earlier that evening.
The jury also has the option to convict her of lesser charges, including second-degree murder and manslaughter, or to deem her not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility — meaning that they believe she did kill the children, but couldn’t control her actions due to being in psychosis.
Both the prosecution and the defense offered their closing arguments Thursday morning, and the jury began deliberating that afternoon.
Sullivan has said that if Clancy is found not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility, the district attorney or another authority will likely petition the court to commit her to a mental health facility. It is unclear what her sentencing will look like if she is convicted of a lesser charge.
