The jury in the Lindsay Clancy trial sent a note to the judge Friday as deliberations stretched into a second day in the closely watched Massachusetts case.
The nine women and three men asked to see two bags of pills that were entered into evidence, along with the knife Clancy used in her suicide attempt after killing her three young children.
The request could be significant, as jurors are revisiting evidence tied to Clancy’s mental state and medication use, key pieces of her defense as they weigh whether she was criminally responsible for the killings.
Clancy has admitted to murdering her three young children but argues she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time.
The jury request comes on the second day of deliberations after the judge formally gave jury instructions on Thursday, allowing jurors to consider lesser offenses, including second-degree murder or manslaughter.
Clancy was facing three counts of first-degree murder, which carry a life sentence. Clancy’s defense team argued that jurors should be allowed to consider second-degree murder or manslaughter, while the state objected. Judge William Sullivan ultimately agreed to give the manslaughter instruction.
According to reporters inside the courtroom, one of the female jurors was “wiping her eyes during closing arguments,” and another female juror “nodded when a psychiatrist testified Clancy’s choice to not take a certain medication was reasonable ‘in her mind,’” CNN reported.
Clancy is accused of murdering her three children, 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan. During the trial, it was established that Clancy strangled the children with exercise bands, one after the other.
During closing arguments, Clancy’s defense team painted the defendant as a “darn good mother” who was mistreated by the health care system and should not be held criminally liable for the children’s deaths due to reasons of insanity. The state said Clancy was indeed suffering mentally, but never suffering from psychosis.
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