An anonymous juror has revealed she initially believed Lindsay Clancy was criminally responsible for the deaths of her three children before changing her vote during tense deliberations involving what she described as “big personalities” in the room.
The juror, identified only as juror No 5, told CBS Boston that she ultimately voted to find Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity after concluding that prosecutors had failed to remove what she called “too much grey area” from the case.
Clancy’s trial at Plymouth County Superior Court in Massachusetts ended in a mistrial on Friday, September 4, after the 12-member jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. A note sent to the judge indicated the jury was split 11-1.
The lone holdout, a man whose identity has not been made public, refused to vote for an acquittal despite allegedly acknowledging that he had reasonable doubt about Clancy’s criminal responsibility.
The anonymous juror said the majority had tried to persuade the holdout almost from the beginning of deliberations, with arguments becoming so heated that shouting could be heard from other rooms in the courthouse.
“The stand-alone juror was not the only one that was unwilling to see things from the other side,” she said. “There were some big personalities in that room, but at the end of the day, it just came down to an inability to move past your convictions.”
She added that she would “kind of defend” the holdout, arguing that other jurors had also remained firm in their views and that he should not be portrayed as the only person unwilling to compromise.
The juror said she had not followed the high-profile case before being summoned for jury service and described herself as well placed to assess the evidence because she had no children of her own and had not formed an opinion in advance.
She said her initial view was that Clancy was guilty and criminally responsible for killing Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan at the family’s home in Duxbury in January 2023.
“Originally, I felt that she was guilty and she was criminally responsible for it,” she said. “Maybe I still believe that in a certain way.”
But the juror said she came to believe Clancy had been suffering a severe mental health crisis and was unable to see any alternative to killing the children. Clancy’s defence argued that she had experienced postpartum psychosis, while prosecutors maintained that she understood what she was doing.
“I think that this was a woman who was not mentally healthy,” the juror said. “She was in the throes of a significant mental crisis.”
She said the evidence had left her devastated, particularly an audio recording of a 911 call made by Clancy’s husband, Patrick, after he discovered the children.
“I will never be the same after that 911 call,” she said, adding that the recording had not been released publicly. “It was horrifying.”
The disclosure comes after three other jurors, including foreperson Roni Carlson, spoke publicly about the deliberations and criticised the unnamed holdout. Carlson said he had admitted having reasonable doubt but still refused to declare Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity.
Clancy, 36, has not denied strangling her children but has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. She was left paralysed from the waist down after jumping from a second-storey window following the killings and remains held in a psychiatric hospital.
A status hearing has been scheduled for September 29. Prosecutors have not yet announced whether they will seek a second trial.
