A Plymouth County judge declared a mistrial Friday in the murder case against Lindsay Clancy, the Duxbury, Massachusetts mother accused of strangling her three young children in January 2023, after jurors told the court twice that they could not reach a unanimous verdict.

Jurors deliberated for more than 38 hours across seven days before Judge William Sullivan discharged them, according to CNN's coverage of the verdict. The panel had been weighing whether Clancy, 36, was guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan at the family's home. According to the defense, a single holdout juror prevented a unanimous decision.

A Case That Never Disputed the Facts

Clancy's attorney, Kevin Reddington, did not contest that she killed her children. Instead, the defense argued throughout the trial that Clancy had been in the grip of postpartum psychosis — a rare but severe mental illness tied to the hormonal and psychological stress that can follow childbirth — and should not be held criminally responsible for her actions, a case detailed at length by WBUR's reporting on the trial.

A MISTRIAL IS NOT AN ACQUITTAL — THE CHARGES AGAINST CLANCY REMAIN

A hung jury and the resulting mistrial leave the underlying charges intact, and Massachusetts law permits prosecutors to retry a defendant after a deadlocked jury. The Plymouth County District Attorney's office has said it will decide "shortly" whether to pursue a second trial, according to ABC10's report on what comes next. A hearing in the case is scheduled for September 29.

The case drew national attention after Clancy's January 2023 arrest and has become a flashpoint in the broader conversation about postpartum mental health screening and the limits of the insanity defense. Whatever the DA ultimately decides, legal experts note that a retrial — should prosecutors pursue one — would likely take months to reach a courtroom, meaning the case is unlikely to be fully resolved before next year.