Lindsay Clancy Case Ends in Mistrial After Jury Fails to Reach Unanimous Verdict — Despite Her Lawyer Begging for Last-Minute Stay
Lindsay Clancy's trial was thrown into chaos.
Sept. 4 2026, Updated 2:27 p.m. ET
Lindsay Clancy's murder trial has officially been declared a mistrial, RadarOnline.com can report, after a last-minute stay for appeal threw the court into chaos.
Clancy did not dispute that she killed her three young children, but her excuse that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time seemed to split the jury.
Lindsay Clancy's Attorney Was Granted a Last-Minute Stay
Clancy's attorney, Kevin Reddington, was granted a last-minute stay to appeal the judge's decision.
Judge William Sullivan told the court he had "no choice" but to declare a mistrial Friday morning, after one juror reportedly refused to budge while the other 11 seemed to have reached a separate conclusion.
However, before banging his gavel to seal his decision, Clancy's defense attorney Kevin Reddington requested and was granted a surprise stay to appeal the ruling and ask jurors to keep deliberating.
Court insiders believe Reddington was likely confident the 11 jurors would have found his client not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and wanted to replace the sole holdout juror.
After an approximately two-hour pause in the proceedings, Sullivan denied the appeal and finally made his decision official. Declaring a mistrial means Clancy could face another lengthy murder trial, but shortly after court was adjourned, Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz said that decision will be made at a later date.
Jurors Were Read the 'Dynamite Charge'
Jurors remained deadlocked after nearly a week of deliberations.
Jurors spent nearly a week behind closed doors deliberating, letting the judge know several times that they were hopelessly deadlocked.
The end seemed near on Wednesday, Sept. 2, when Judge Sullivan read out the so-called "Tuey-Rodriguez" charge, nicknamed the "Dynamite Charge," which was essentially a final plea from the judge to jurors to try one last time to come to a consensus on a verdict.
On Friday, after spending 37 hours discussing and debating, the nine women and three men sent a note saying: "It is with a heavy heart that we are unable to come to a unanimous decision and will not be able to."
After an hour-long delay, while Reddington unsuccessfully appealed to Massachusetts' Supreme Court, Sullivan finally declared a mistrial.
Lindsay Clancy's Defense Argument
Clancy had insisted she was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she killed her kids.
Clancy's defense had argued from the start that she was not criminally responsible for the murders because of a postpartum mental illness that left her unable to understand what she was doing was wrong or a crime.
She previously claimed she heard voices that directed her to harm her children in a moment of psychosis.
Her ex-husband, Patrick, was the first to testify in her trial, and has said publicly he forgives her, instead blaming her mental health for her actions, alleging she was prescribed nine medications in the months before the killings, including eight within three weeks.
Records indicate Lindsay was prescribed a cocktail of medications that included benzodiazepines, antidepressants, sleeping pills and mood stabilizers.
Chaos Outside the Courthouse
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Dawn Light was arrested for allegedly filming jurors debating the fate of Lindsay Clancy.
The trial captured national attention, as followers debated Clancy's fate nearly as furiously as the jury did. Large crowds of Clancy's supporters and objectors gathered daily outside the courthouse, leading to a self-confessed "true crime junkie" finding herself in her own court case on charges that she was secretly filming jurors.
Dawn Light pleaded not guilty to aggravated intimidation of a juror at her arraignment Wednesday, Sept. 2. Authorities said Light, a retired nurse, had parked in a restricted area of the court parking lot as jurors were leaving after Tuesday's deliberations.
When cops approached her, she was reportedly "adamant" that she wasn't filming jurors but rather "waiting to see if Lindsay Clancy would come out of the building."
"This is a complete misunderstanding," her attorney said. "(Light was) seeking a picture of Miss Clancy and had no intention of interaction with the jurors."
However, when State Police officers sifted through her phone's deleted images, they discovered a video of jurors.
