Prosecutors pursuing a second trial against Lindsay Clancy could face the same obstacle that produced a hung jury the first time: finding 12 Massachusetts jurors willing to unanimously reject her insanity defense.
Jonathan Turley, a Fox News contributor and professor at The George Washington University Law School, said the prosecution must weigh the possibility of another deadlocked trial against the political and emotional consequences of abandoning the case.
"The question is whether they could ever get a jury, particularly in Massachusetts, that would unanimously vote against this defendant," Turley told Fox News Digital. "For prosecutors, they have to weigh that, but they may find the alternative equally unappealing — to simply walk away and say, 'There are three dead children here, but we just don't think we could ever win this case.'"
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Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, said he believes the district attorney's office should try and negotiate a deal — but also that it appears unlikely due to the nature of the crime and the defense's position after deadlocked jurors split 11-1, with only a single holdout in favor of finding Clancy guilty of murder in the strangling deaths of her three young children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months.
"The reason I don't think there's any deal to be made here is Reddington has come out during his media tour and said that he's not going to accept any deal that results in jail time," he told Fox News Digital. "Even if you're talking about first-degree or second-degree murder, in Massachusetts, first-degree, of course, has no possibility of parole. Second-degree has the possibility of a parole. That's not something that Reddington and the defense are going to accept."
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The defense does not dispute that Clancy, a 36-year-old former delivery room nurse, choked her three children to death with exercise bands in January 2023. Then she tried to kill herself.
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She survived a fall from a second-story window and is now paralyzed.
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Her defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, has argued that she is not criminally responsible for the deaths due to mental illness or defect.
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Still, he's said in recent interviews that he is open to talking about a deal, and he told Fox News' Bryan Llenas last week that if prosecutors reduced the top charge to second-degree murder, he would opt for a bench trial — one without jurors — in the hope that she receives probation as punishment.
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"I would like to see [Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz] reduce it to a second-degree so we could possibly waive a jury and try the case before a judge," he said. "I would see Tim determine that the case should not go forward and dismiss it, or in the alternative fashion, something where Lindsay gets the mental, physical help that she needs rather than criminal prosecution — because I would not ever, ever in a million years have that woman go to Framingham State Prison."
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As prosecutors weigh a potential retrial, Judge William Sullivan is protecting the names of jurors in her mistrial, ordering their identities to be impounded indefinitely and the confidential juror questionnaires to be impounded for at least the next 10 days.
JUROR ON LINDSAY CLANCY TRIAL SAYS 'WE LET DOWN LINDSAY' FOLLOWING MISTRIAL
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He cited threats and concerns for their safety.
Clancy, who is charged with murder in the strangling deaths of her three children, is due back in court on Sept. 29.