The key facts
- On November 16, Judge William Sullivan will rule on motions, including the request to dismiss the first-degree murder charges
- A possible retrial could begin as early as March 2027
- The defense is investigating the sole juror who disagreed with the rest and is demanding his phone records
Court schedules key hearings after jury deadlock
Massachusetts prosecutors have given the clearest signal yet of their intent to retry Lindsay Clancy on charges of murdering her three children in 2023. At a Monday hearing, Judge William Sullivan scheduled a November 16 session at which he intends to rule on a series of motions that will shape how a retrial could proceed — including the defense's request to dismiss the first-degree murder charges. If a retrial goes ahead, the judge said, it could begin as early as March 2027. The report comes from BBC News.
What the first trial decided and why it collapsed
Over the summer, Clancy went through a multi-week trial on three counts of first-degree murder, but in early September the trial ended in a mistrial: the 12 jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict. According to the BBC, the other jurors appeared to be leaning toward an insanity acquittal, but one juror (identified in court documents as Juror Doe) disagreed, which led to the deadlock. Clancy herself does not deny killing the children, but the defense argues she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis at the time; the prosecution insists the killings were deliberate.
Disagreement over timing and the charges
The two sides differ on how to move forward. Clancy's lawyer Kevin Reddington pushed for a spring date: “I am not going to have this woman sit in custody for another year, two or three. I need a date, and I need it this spring.” Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague, by contrast, said she wants to first hear the judge's rulings on the motions before settling on a date and details, and she did not specify whether the same charges would be brought at retrial or altered ones — for example, the lesser charge of second-degree murder, which does not require proof of premeditation. Meanwhile, District Attorney Timothy Cruz, as the BBC notes, has not yet officially confirmed that a retrial will take place at all.
The dispute over the dissenting juror
A significant portion of the three-hour hearing was devoted to Juror Doe. Reddington, in pointed arguments, demanded a range of evidence, including the juror's phone and call records, and the defense, according to its lawyer Heather O'Connor, “stitched together several assertions” in an attempt to prove that a mistrial should not have been declared. Judge Sullivan promised to rule on these motions at the November 16 session; the parties may also discuss dates for the new trial at that time.
Image source, Getty Images 
