A juror in the high-profile Lindsay Clancy murder trial in Massachusetts said the panel felt it had «let down Lindsay» after deliberations ended in a mistrial, exposing a deep split over whether the young mother should be held criminally responsible for killing her three children.
Paula, 65, one of the jurors who sided with the majority, told WCVB that the task was complicated by the emotional weight of the case. «Everybody says you're not supposed to feel like you failed, but you have a task to come out unanimous. And we tried everything we could to get to that end. And I feel like we let down Lindsay,» she said.
The trial ended in a mistrial last week after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. Eleven jurors favored finding Clancy not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility — Massachusetts' version of an insanity defense — while one holdout believed she was criminally responsible.
Clancy was accused of strangling her three young children in January 2023 after sending her then-husband, Patrick, out to pick up medication and takeout. When he returned, he found Clancy injured outside after an apparent suicide attempt and the children unconscious in the basement. Two children died that night, while the third was airlifted to a Boston hospital and died several days later.
Her legal team did not dispute that she killed her children but argued she should not be found criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis. Clancy also admitted in court filings to killing her three children but claimed severe mental illness left her not criminally responsible.
Paula said the majority believed Clancy needed help and that the healthcare system failed her, adding that the medical community should do more to support women with postpartum mental health issues. «There was a clear indication that the medical community failed her and not just her, but her whole family, because something like that affects the whole entire family,» she said. «And if everybody can be educated in a better way, then it will help the whole family unit.»
After attorneys made their arguments, jurors were sent to deliberate with 297 pieces of evidence, including Patrick's emotional 911 call, which Paula said some jurors had trouble listening to. «We all tried to help each other. It was hard to separate the children from what our task was, and it was very emotional,» she said.
The jurors polled themselves at the start of deliberations, at which point eight believed Clancy was not guilty due to lack of criminal responsibility, two thought she was guilty and two were undecided, according to Paula. The majority eventually came to the belief that Clancy was not guilty due to lack of criminal responsibility. Prosecutors argued during trial that Clancy was criminally responsible for the killings despite evidence that she suffered from mental illness.
«We did not start out 11 to one,» Paula said. «Everybody had different opinions and different reasons and different ways that they got there.»
Paula said the majority had a hard time understanding why the one holdout wanted to convict Clancy. «We did not feel that he was following the law because he admitted that he had doubt at different times, that he had doubt about the case that was presented, and the way the rule read to all the rest of us is if we had doubt, then we could not convict her of first-degree murder or second-degree murder or manslaughter,» she said.
The foreperson then sent a note to the judge saying the jury could not reach a verdict and accusing the holdout of refusing to apply the law on reasonable doubt. Judge William Sullivan called up each juror and individually asked if they could apply the law as he had explained it, and they reportedly answered in the affirmative. «The judge has to believe that people are telling him the truth. And so, you know, 11 people told the truth and one maybe didn't. And I will never know why,» Paula said.
Paula said she believed it would have been worth restarting deliberations with an alternate if the court had removed the holdout. «If our holdout juror had given us evidence to support his reasoning, we would have felt differently about what we told the judge,» she said.
Other jurors have also spoken out in recent days to take issue with the holdout's position. Juror Kellie Farina previously told NBC10 Boston that the holdout «had the hardest time getting off the fact that Lindsay viciously killed her children.»
On Thursday, Clancy's defense filed a motion arguing the prosecution failed to meet its burden and asked the judge to enter a required finding of not guilty, which the defense argues would prevent a retrial.