Lindsay Clancy Mistrial: Reddington Weighs In

Shanelle Kaul (0:00)

As a warning, some of this content contains graphic and disturbing details, including discussions of suicide and the killing of children. So please listen or watch with care. We'll have resources for you at the end of the episode.

William Sullivan (0:15)

All right, members of the jury, at this point, I'm going to declare that the jury is deadlocked, and I'm gonna declare a mistrial, all right?

Shanelle Kaul (0:27)

On Friday, September 4th, after about 36 hours of deliberation, Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts versus Lindsay Clancy. In what's known as a hung jury, the 12 jurors deliberating on this case were unable to come to a unanimous agreement on a verdict. A mistrial was initially proposed by the judge that Friday morning, and was hard fought by defense attorney Kevin Reddington. He filed an appeal for an emergency stay so he could ask the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to intervene and remove a single juror or determine whether the juror could comply with the judge's instructions. The appeal claimed that the jurors quote, reasoning reflects a bias against those who suffer from debilitating mental illness, end quote. The prosecution and the defense were able to get on a Zoom call with the justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on the very same day.

However, the appeal was denied and the judge later announced an official mistrial that afternoon.

As those who have been following this case know, Lindsay Clancy is the Dexbury, Massachusetts mother who was on trial for the killing of her three young children, five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson, and eight-month-old Callan. Lindsay is paralyzed from the waist down as a result of her alleged suicide attempt that same night. Lindsay's defense lawyer doesn't dispute that Lindsay killed her three children. After hearing testimony from over 80 witnesses and seen over 300 exhibits of evidence, what the jury had to decide here was whether she should be held criminally responsible. The defense argued that she experienced undiagnosed postpartum psychosis that took away her ability to control her actions and therefore, should be found not criminally responsible. They also argued that her condition was exacerbated by the 13 psychiatric medications she'd been prescribed. I'm CBS News correspondent, Shanelle Kaul, and this is Case by Case. Now, I've been following this case for the network for over a month now, and was actually inside the courtroom for a lot of the big key moments. For our continuing coverage, you can check the Case by Case feed wherever you find your podcasts. You can also watch episodes of Case by Case on the 48 Hours YouTube channel, or by searching Case by Case on Paramount Plus.

Joining us today is Boston Wbz-TV reporter and anchor, Kristina Rex, who's been reporting on this case since the Day of the Killings. Thank you so much for being here, Kristina.

Kristina Rex (2:58)

Of course. Thanks for having me again.

Shanelle Kaul (3:00)

There's so much to get into and there's so much that we together experienced, saw, witnessed.

We were both in Plymouth for that dramatic moment back on Friday. Take us inside the courtroom. What did it feel like? How were people there reacting?

Kristina Rex (3:15)

It really felt like the mistrial declaration was a slow burn for the people in the courtroom, except for the jurors, because it had been discussed a little bit Thursday afternoon. We knew there was a hung jury. Then Friday, the judge had said he planned to declare a mistrial before Kevin Reddington asked for a chance to appeal. So as far as, in my opinion, and I'm curious if you'll agree, as far as Lindsay Clancy's family went and people who were in the courtroom, they saw it coming. I think it was the jurors' reactions that were really notable to me. There were several women on the jury who had emotional reactions to that mistrial declaration, including one woman who bent over forwards with her head in her hands when that mistrial was declared.

Shanelle Kaul (3:57)

And Kristina, some of the jurors from this trial have actually spoken out about what it was like and about that one juror that allegedly led to the mistrial. I know you also spoke to one of those jurors. Can you tell us a bit about that conversation?

Kristina Rex (4:12)

I did. I spoke to one of the female jurors in this case. You know, there were nine women and three men on this jury. And she told me that there were some really strong personalities in that deliberation room and that from the beginning of deliberations, a lot of jurors felt really strongly one way or another. And that we know they were in there for nearly seven days. So over the course of that time, they really started talking, looking through evidence. And she even felt, she told me, going into the room like she would be a guilty vote. And then over the course of those discussions, she started to really feel her mindset shift and started to feel the weight of what she told me she thought was her constitutional duty here. And that if she experienced reasonable doubt, she felt she had to vote not guilty by reason of insanity, which is where she ended up in this case. And she did confirm the four persons note to the judge. She said there was one holdout juror who multiple times acknowledged that they were experiencing some doubt here, but refused to change their vote to reflect that doubt. And that's really where they became a hung jury.