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Lindsay Clancy appeared in a Massachusetts courtroom on Monday as her defense team seeks to have murder charges against her dropped. Clancy's attorney argued that she is not criminally responsible for the deaths of her three children in January 2023 due to postpartum psychosis. The judge has taken the request under advisement, following the hearing.
The hearing was the second time Clancy has been in court since her trial ended with a deadlocked jury in September, as reported by The Guardian. The defense argued that a new trial would violate double jeopardy rules, which prevent a defendant from being tried twice for the same crime.
During the hearing, defense attorney Martin G. Weinberg argued that Judge William Sullivan should have investigated further after receiving notes from the jury foreperson indicating that a juror was not following the rules. Weinberg suggested that questioning the juror could have avoided the mistrial, according to PBS NewsHour.
Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague countered that the disagreement was not due to personal bias but rather a different assessment of the evidence. She argued that the holdout juror did not refuse to deliberate but refused to agree, as noted by NBC News.
The judge did not immediately rule on the motion to dismiss the charges and has scheduled a status hearing for November 16 to revisit the case and potentially set a retrial date. If the motion is denied, a new trial could begin as early as March next year.