The jury in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial has hit a major roadblock—and the judge just dropped a legal bombshell to try to break the deadlock.
After telling the court for a second time that they simply cannot agree on a verdict, the panel of nine women and three men received what’s known locally as the “Dynamite Charge.” Plymouth Judge William Sullivan read the so-called Tuey-Rodriguez instruction Wednesday, a last-resort move that strongly urges jurors to keep deliberating until they reach a consensus.
The move came after roughly 28 hours of discussions over Tuesday and Wednesday. The jury had initially sent a note Tuesday saying they were stuck, but the judge asked them to keep trying. When they returned with another deadlock note Wednesday, Sullivan decided to give the formal charge.
Inside the courtroom, the tension was palpable. Lindsay Clancy and her attorney Kevin Reddington were seen whispering at the defense table before the judge called both sides to sidebar. Reddington later rubbed his eyes and appeared visibly anxious, while Clancy sat with her eyebrows furrowed, looking worried.
Reddington told reporters outside court that the judge could potentially give the same instruction a second time if needed. “It’s under the statute but he can give it twice,” the lawyer said.
The case centers on whether the 36-year-old Duxbury mother should be held criminally responsible for the deaths of her three children—Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan—on January 24, 2023. Clancy also attempted to take her own life that day.
Her defense argues she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis and hallucinated a voice telling her to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 the kids, making her not guilty by reason of insanity. Prosecutors, however, claim she was not in psychosis and instead carefully planned and carried out the acts.
Both sides rested after 21 days of testimony. The trial began with her ex-husband Patrick Clancy taking the stand. He testified that Lindsay repeatedly sought help for her worsening mental state in the months leading up to the tragedy—seeing a psychiatrist, calling a suicide hotline twice, checking into a mental institution for five days, and reaching out to two perinatal clinics.
Still, he said, she “kept getting worse and worse.”
Patrick also revealed she had opened up about having thoughts of harming the children. According to testimony, Lindsay’s “big spiral” was reportedly fueled by at least 13 psychiatric medications prescribed by five different providers between November 2022 and the day before the murders.
In haunting testimony, Patrick recalled returning home to find Lindsay in the backyard with cuts on her wrists and throat after jumping from a second-story window. He ran inside and discovered all three children dead in the basement. “She killed the kids,” he could be heard screaming on a 911 call played for jurors.
Lindsay Clancy, who is paralyzed from the waist down and attended the trial in a wheelchair, broke down in tears multiple times during the emotional testimony.
Jurors were sent home at 4 p. m. Wednesday and are expected to return Thursday at 9 a.
m. for a sixth day of deliberations.
With the judge’s “Dynamite Charge” now in play, will the jury finally reach a verdict—or is this case heading toward a mistrial?
