What happens next if the jury in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial can't reach a verdict?

A Massachusetts jury deliberated for a fifth day Wednesday on whether Lindsay Clancy was criminally responsible when she strangled her three children in 2023, amid conflicting testimony about her post-pregnancy mental health. For a second time, the panel told the judge it was still unable to reach a unanimous decision, and jurors were sent back to try again.

What happens if they can’t reach a verdict?

A mistrial would be declared and the case would essentially go back to the same status as before the trial, with the 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse charged with murder and held at a psychiatric hospital awaiting a resolution of the criminal case.

Prosecutors would have to decide whether to try again with a new jury. If they do, the jury selection process would begin again and a new trial would be scheduled.

Prosecutors could also offer a plea deal to Clancy, said Brad Bailey, a Boston defense attorney and former prosecutor who is not involved in the case.

“Any time the threat of a retrial with murder one hanging over the client is re-interjected, defense lawyers will, at the very least, explore whether or not there’s any interest in a resolution,” Bailey said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

Clancy doesn’t deny strangling her children at their home south of Boston, but says postpartum psychosis led to her actions. After the killings, her husband found her badly injured in the yard, where she landed after jumping from a second-story window. She was left paralyzed from the waist down.

Prosecutors argue she knew what she was doing.

Though less likely after a first trial ends without a verdict, the district attorney’s office could decide to not retry the case .

“Sometimes they decide not to, because of the sense that there may be the same result each time they try it, and because of the expenditures involved in trying the case to begin with, particularly when you have expert witnesses,” Bailey said. “Those are going to be expensive cases.”

Bailey expects her defense attorney to aggressively lobby against another trial if a mistrial is declared, making a case to the district attorney’s office along the lines of: “‘Why are you doing this to this poor woman? She’s still clearly obviously suffering. She’s been punished with her paralysis and, worse than that, the loss of her three children.’”

A conviction could mean life in prison for Clancy, while an acquittal might lead to confinement in a mental health facility.

Karen Read was charged in the 2022 death of her Boston police officer boyfriend. Jurors in her 2024 trial deadlocked on the fifth day of deliberations, leading to a mistrial .

Prosecutors chose to retry the case, but a different jury last year found Read not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.

Like Read's case, Clancy's has drawn a divided public reaction.

Clancy's livestreamed trial drew attention to maternal mental health after childbirth and was closely watched by a polarized public. Clancy’s sympathizers saw her as a loving mom who had realized something was badly wrong in the months ahead of the killings and sought help, including checking herself into a psychiatric hospital. Her detractors said she deserved to be punished for an evil and selfish act.