Clancy Jury Still Deadlocked After Women Spend Four Days Deciding on Where to Go for Lunch
PLYMOUTH, Mass. — The jury in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial returned to court Wednesday still unable to reach a verdict, a delay court observers initially attributed to the complexity of the case and later to a prolonged dispute over where to eat.
The panel of nine women and three men has been deliberating for five days. On Tuesday they told Judge William Sullivan they could not come to a unanimous decision. On Wednesday they said it again. Sullivan issued a so-called dynamite instruction urging them to keep trying.
Sources familiar with the deliberations said the legal questions were not the main obstacle.
“They have not selected an entrée,” one person briefed on the matter said. “That is the holdup.”
According to accounts circulating outside the courthouse, the women on the jury began discussing lunch late last week and have not stopped. Options reportedly included salads, sandwiches, “something light,” “something that won’t make us tired,” and a place that “has good parking.” No restaurant has survived more than twenty minutes.
One juror is said to have suggested the same café three times. Another asked whether soup counted as a meal. A third wanted to see menus before committing. By Monday the conversation had moved to dietary restrictions. By Tuesday it had returned to parking.
The three men on the jury were described as willing to eat anything. Their position has not advanced the process.
“They keep saying, ‘Wherever is fine,’” a source said. “That has not been accepted as a vote.”
Sullivan has not commented on the lunch talks. After the jury’s second deadlock note Wednesday, he thanked the panel for its “time and commitment” and sent it home with instructions to return Thursday at 9 a.m.
Clancy, 36, is charged in the 2023 deaths of her three children. She has pleaded not guilty and argues she was not criminally responsible. The jury may choose among several verdicts, none of which, as of Wednesday evening, had been reached.
A note from the jury late in the day asked whether the court could provide a list of nearby restaurants with outdoor seating. The judge did not immediately respond.
Deliberations resume in the morning. No lunch reservation has been confirmed.
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