Jurors in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three young children in 2023, have told the court they are deadlocked after three days of deliberations. Judge William Sullivan has instructed them to continue trying to reach a verdict rather than declaring a mistrial, a step legal experts describe as common in complex, emotionally charged cases such as this one, where jurors face graphic evidence and a difficult insanity-related defence.

Clancy, a 36-year-old former nurse, does not dispute killing Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months, by strangling them with fitness bands at their family home in January 2023. Her defence argues she was suffering postpartum psychosis and could not distinguish right from wrong, while prosecutors contend the killings were calculated and intentional. If convicted of first-degree murder she faces a mandatory life sentence without parole; lesser verdicts of second-degree murder or manslaughter would still carry prison time, while a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity would see her committed indefinitely to a psychiatric hospital.