Judge Refuses to Remove Holdout Juror in Lindsay Clancy Murder Trial

The judge presiding over the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy refused a defense request to remove a juror whom defense attorney Kevin Reddington accused of refusing to follow court instructions regarding reasonable doubt. The 12 jurors, consisting of nine women and three men (Daily Mail), went home without a verdict following a sixth day of deliberations. Judge William Sullivan dismissed the panel to return on Friday in Plymouth, Massachusetts, less than an hour after receiving a note from the jury.

Judge Refuses Defense Request to Remove Holdout Juror

According to Reddington, the jury’s foreperson stated in a note that a single juror was holding up a verdict and refuses to listen to the law… on reasonable doubt. Reddington moved to have the juror removed, telling Judge Sullivan, If we come back here in half an hour with a mistrial because of a juror that has just spurned the instructions of this court, it’s a shame. Judge Sullivan declined the request, stating, I don’t feel that it is proper for me to side with one side or the other of the deliberations. I don’t feel it’s appropriate for me to say I agree with one juror or the 11.

Deliberations and Prior Deadlock Notes

The jury has spent nearly 36 hours discussing the case (Daily Mail). Earlier in the proceedings, jurors sent notes on Tuesday and Wednesday indicating they were unable to reach a unanimous decision. On Thursday, the judge brought the jury back in and provided a thorough definition of what beyond a reasonable doubt means before sending them back to deliberate. The note received on Thursday was not read aloud in court.

Judge Refuses to Remove Holdout Juror in Lindsay Clancy Murder Trial — Photo: The Guardian

If the jury ultimately fails to reach a verdict and Judge Sullivan declares a mistrial, prosecutors will need to decide whether to retry the case, which involved more than 80 witnesses and over 300 exhibits. Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz told reporters outside the courthouse during a lunch break that we’ll hang on and find out regarding the state of deliberations, and declined to comment on whether his office would retry the case until it is completely over.

Trial Background and Charges

Lindsay Clancy, a 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, does not deny strangling her three children—Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and 8-month-old Callan—with exercise bands on January 24, 2023, in the basement of their home in Duxbury. Following the incident, she cut herself with a knife and jumped from a second-storey window in an attempted suicide that left her paralysed.

Lindsay Clancy looks at jurors in Plymouth Superior Court on 3 September 2026 — Photo: BBC

During the six-week trial, the defense argued that Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis and poor mental healthcare, making her unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of her actions. Prosecutors argued that she intentionally planned the killings and chose to do so because she had decided to take her own life and was convinced the children would suffer without her.

Clancy faces life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder. If found not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility or insanity, she could be committed to a state psychiatric hospital. The issue with the juror is scheduled to be addressed again when court reconvenes on Friday.