Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial ended a third day of deliberations Monday without reaching a verdict, as the defendant’s attorney used a courthouse appearance to attack weekend television coverage of the case.
Kevin Reddington, Clancy’s defense attorney, told reporters outside Plymouth Superior Court that he arrived at the courthouse nervous and that recent commentary on the case had crossed a line. He singled out Fox News host Sean Hannity and commentator Nancy Grace by name.
“Media coverage over the weekend has been horrific,” Reddington said. “By that I mean Mr. Hannity, with his men discussing every little inch of Lindsay’s symptoms and criticizing.”
He was harsher toward Grace, calling her the “Queen of Mean” and accusing her of misrepresenting facts in the case.
“I challenge Nancy Grace to show us where Lindsay Clancy ever said, ever googled ‘How to kill’ — words that came out of her mouth. These things hurt, these things hurt people. If you’re going to be a journalist, do it right.”
Clancy strangled her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — in January 2023. Prosecutors argue she knew what she was doing and acted because she was depressed and tired of living. Reddington maintains postpartum psychosis had severed her grip on reality at the time.
Judge William Sullivan sent jurors home shortly before 4 p.m. Monday after they asked to adjourn for the evening. They have now deliberated roughly 17 hours since Thursday and are due back Tuesday at 9 a.m. Sullivan told the panel to “stay the course” and repeated his instruction that they avoid outside coverage of the trial.
Jurors face five possible outcomes. A first-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole. Second-degree murder carries life with the possibility of parole, while manslaughter carries a maximum of 20 years. An acquittal based on lack of criminal responsibility would not result in Clancy’s release, since prosecutors can petition to have her committed to a psychiatric facility.
The panel has submitted one question since deliberations began, asking to review prescription pill bottles and the knife Clancy used on herself. Reddington said Monday that jurors had not yet received those items and described the group as “very thorough.”
Legal analyst Elyse Hershon said the jury’s request suggests it is trying to establish motive. “The jury is going to be looking for that why,” Hershon said.
Clancy, 36, is a former labor and delivery nurse who has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility. She did not testify in her own defense. Over five weeks of trial, jurors heard from more than 70 prosecution witnesses, including Clancy’s then-husband, and from 10 defense witnesses.
Clancy was discharged from a psychiatric hospital less than three weeks before the killings and was injured the same day her children died; she is now paralyzed from the waist down.
A fundraiser for Clancy’s parents, Mike and Paula Musgrove, has drawn close to $1 million in donations from supporters, many of whom have posted comments defending her.
