As the Lindsay Clancy murder trial heads into its sixth day of jury deliberations, the defense side seems to be sensing that it may be headed to a mistrial after the jury has twice told the judge that they are deadlocked. That would be a shame, said her attorney, because she simply won't be able to "handle" a second trial.
Clancy attorney Kevin Reddington made the remark after the jury told Judge William Sullivan for the first time that they were deadlocked. Reddington reported that his client's demeanor had been "flat" throughout the trial and warned that Clancy, who admitted to strangling her three young children with exercise bands back in January of 2023, wouldn't be able to make it through an additional trial if it came to that.
“She had a flat affect — she’s sad,” attorney Kevin Reddington told reporters Tuesday, describing her demeanor during the current trial.
When asked whether Clancy could emotionally handle another trial, the New York Post reported that Reddington told reporters, “No.”
JUST IN: Lindsay Clancy's defense attorney warns she'll be unable to "emotionally handle" a retrial.
— Polymarket (@Polymarket) September 2, 2026
Incidentally, defense attorney Reddington seems to have reached rock star status with the pro-Lindsay crowd that gathers outside the Plymouth, MA, courthouse every day to cheer on their girl. He's often seen mingling with them, taking selfies, and generally enjoying the adulation. Another trial would probably do his ego good.
Clancy, who is now wheelchair-bound after throwing herself out a second-story window in a failed suicide attempt, often sat stony-faced at the defense table throughout the trial, sometimes breaking down in tears when particularly gruesome details about the children were presented to the jury.
But she may have no choice about having to sit through a second trial.
As RedState reported Wednesday night, the jury for second time told Sullivan they were deadlocked, prompting him to read them something called the Tuey-Rodriguez charge. 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.
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 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.