The jury in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial seems to be hopelessly deadlocked and, on Wednesday, got one step closer to the judge having to declare a mistrial in the case of the mother who admitted to killing her three young children, but claims she was having a psychotic episode at the time and didn't know what she was doing.

A note was passed by the jury to Judge William Sullivan Wednesday afternoon telling him that, yet again, they've been unable to agree on a verdict. They'd sent him a similar note on Tuesday, revealing that the nine women and three men were unable to come to a unanimous verdict. Sullivan instructed them to go back to the drawing board, and eventually let them cut out early.

This time around, Sullivan had one last card to play: something called the Tuey-Rodriguez charge. 

A Tuey-Rodriguez charge is unique to Massachusetts and is sometimes called a "dynamite charge" because it is intended to help break a jury impasse without coercing a verdict.

Retired Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Thomas Drechsler explained that a judge only gives out the charge when he or she has determined that the jurors have deliberated in good faith but remain deadlocked.

"The charge encourages the jurors to rethink their own feelings in light of what other jurors feel" while reminding them that no one is in a better position to decide the case than the jurors who heard all the evidence, Drechsler said.

If jurors report they remain deadlocked after receiving the instruction, "there's a higher likelihood" the case could end in a mistrial, Drechsler said, though he noted he has seen juries return verdicts after receiving a Tuey-Rodriguez charge.

The jury in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial left for the day without a verdict after telling Plymouth Superior Judge William Sullivan that it is deadlocked for a second time.

In response, Sullivan read what are called the "Tuey-Rodriguez" instructions, also called "dynamite" instructions to the jury, and sent them back out of the courtroom to continue deliberations.

Legal analysts explained that jurors sometimes are able to go back and reach a unanimous verdict after having the charge given them, often not wanting to have to punt the decision to another jury down the line. The Clancy jury could go that route, but it seems more likely that this whole thing is headed for a mistrial.

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We don't know at this point just how deadlocked the jury actually is – is there one holdout? Several? Are they leaning toward a conviction?

Lindsay Clancy is charged with three counts each of murder and strangulation in the January 24, 2023, deaths of her three children – 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan – at the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts. 

Jurors can convict her of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter, or find her not guilty, including by reason of lack of criminal responsibility. A first-degree murder conviction would carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.

Jury deliberations are expected to resume Thursday morning.