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A legal instruction has been handed to jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial after they could not reach a unanimous verdict.
The 36-year-old mother has been accused of killing her three children before jumping out of a window.
Back on January 24, 2023, the Massachusetts mom allegedly strangled her kids, Cora, five; Dawson, three; and eight-month-old Callan.
She then leapt from a second-story window in an attempt to take her own life, while her husband, Patrick Clancy, was at the store.
He would arrive back home to a horrific sight, with his wife severely injured outside, and despite rushing his children to hospital, they all succumbed to their injuries.
Clancy, who survived, now requires a wheelchair and has not denied strangling her children, though she claims she was suffering from undiagnosed postpartum psychosis.
She also claimed that she had been struggling with the effects of numerous medications she had been prescribed.
Following the five-week trial, a jury of nine women and three men must decide if the mother is guilty or not guilty following testimonies from several parties.
This includes healthcare providers, her ex-husband, mother, and sister, as well as first responders and psychiatrists, who evaluated Clancy after the terrifying event.
The jury returned after four days, telling the court they couldn't reach a unanimous verdict after 18 hours of deliberations.
But veteran Judge William Sullivan has not accepted that, ordering that they return to the deliberation room.
Speaking to the court, he said: "I brought you back out because I know that this was a long trial.
"I know there were over 80 witnesses. There were over 300 exhibits, but because of that I’m going to ask you to go back out, keeping in mind all of the instructions that I gave you, to go out and continue your deliberation at this time."
But if the jurors return and say that they are still deadlocked, the judge could issue a 'Tuey-Rodriguez charge', which is also known as the 'dynamite charge'.
This legal instruction pressures deadlocked jurors to reach a unanimous verdict in Massachusetts courts.
As explained by Boston attorney Peter Elikann to the New York Post, the charge is "almost equivalent to a pep talk by the judge encouraging them to go back and try harder."
According to David Rossman, the director of the Criminal Law Clinical Program at Boston University, the charge makes jurors "search your conscience to see whether your position is truly reflective of your view."
Jurors are even asked to consider if they have "been open to what other people have said."
Rossman told CT Insider: "If they can’t agree, I would expect the judge to deliver that kind of instruction because this has been a very labor-intensive trial and it would cost a lot."
However, if there is still a deadlock following a 'dynamite charge', then the judge would have no choice but to declare a mistrial.
The 12 jurors have five potential options as they weigh up Clancy's fate.
They include: Not guilty, not guilty by reason of insanity, first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and manslaughter.
The panel has only asked one specific question so far, asking to see the knife used by Clancy in her suicide attempt, as well as her prescription medication bottles.
While her defense team is pushing for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity, prosecutors say that she premeditated the kids' deaths and was not in a state of psychosis.
