The high-profile murder trial of Lindsay Clancy ended in a mistrial on September 4, 2026, after a Plymouth Superior Court jury deadlocked 11-1 following nearly 40 hours of deliberations over seven days. Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, admitted strangling her three children—Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months—with exercise bands in the basement of the family’s Duxbury, Massachusetts, home in January 2023. Her defense argued she was not criminally responsible due to postpartum psychosis. Prosecutors contended she acted deliberately.
Eleven jurors favored a finding of not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility. One juror refused to join them. That holdout was later identified as a Black man in his 30s and the only person of color on a panel of nine women and three men. Fellow juror Paula Devlin disclosed the detail during a September 11 interview on CBS Mornings. “70-ish to 22, and one person of color and then everybody else was White,” Devlin said. When asked if the holdout was a Black man, she confirmed: “Yes.” Host Gayle King paused and replied, “Whoa. I have to sit with that for just a second.” The holdout has not spoken publicly.
Other jurors described intense frustration with him. Foreperson Roni Carlson said the man admitted having reasonable doubt after reviewing a forensic psychologist’s interview of Clancy. “He admitted he had reasonable doubt and I started filling out the forms, I was so excited,” Carlson recalled. “I wrote my signature on each one, and then he said, ‘But I’m still not going to say that she’s not guilty by reason of insanity.’” Carlson had begun completing the three verdict slips before he reversed course.
Paula Devlin called him “very arrogant.” “He really did not take anything that anybody said,” she said. When he questioned a toxicology report, nurses on the jury explained the medications and dosages from hospital records. “He just completely disregarded the information that they gave him.” Kellie Farina added that he “had the hardest time getting off the fact that Lindsay viciously killed her children” and “would not interact with us and try to understand.” The group repeatedly read him the judge’s definition of reasonable doubt.
Juror Nick Dargie, one of the other two men on the panel, said the holdout offered no supporting evidence. “There wasn’t a single piece of evidence or witness testimony that he used to prove why he was thinking the way he was.” Dargie also described the man scrolling on his phone during discussions and, at one point, taking an exercise band from evidence, wrapping it around a water bottle, and pulling it in what Dargie took as a reenactment of the killings. “I was shocked. It didn’t make any sense to me. We’re not in here to play detective.”
One anonymous female juror offered a partial defense, noting “big personalities” in the room and that the holdout was not the only person unwilling to shift views. Still, she said his refusal to apply the reasonable-doubt standard he himself acknowledged meant Clancy did not receive a fair trial. Judge William Sullivan declined a defense request to remove the juror, saying it was not his place to side with 11 jurors or one. Prosecutors must now decide whether to retry the case. Clancy remains at Tewksbury State Hospital.
SOURCES:
Judge Declares a Mistrial in Lindsay Clancy’s Murder Case – The New York Times
Three Jurors in Clancy Trial Describe Frustration With Holdout – The New York Times
Lindsay Clancy jurors on holdout juror: ‘He was very arrogant’
Lone Lindsay Clancy holdout juror did not provide ‘single piece of evidence’ to support his vote: fellow juror
Lindsay Clancy jurors speak out on what led to mistrial
