Judge tells Lindsay Clancy jury to keep deliberating after failing to reach a unanimous decision so far

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — The judge in the Lindsay Clancy trial told jurors to keep deliberating Tuesday after they said they could not reach a unanimous decision on whether to hold the Massachusetts mother criminally responsible for killing her three young children at her home in 2023.

Coming near the start of the fourth day of deliberations, this was the first time the jury gave any indication they were at an impasse. On Friday, the jurors had asked to look at a knife that Clancy used to cut herself and bags with empty prescription pill bottles found in her house.

WATCH: The central issue that the Lindsay Clancy jury will be deliberating

Clancy stared straight ahead as the jury entered and then looked toward them as the judge spoke to the panel.

"I know that this was a long trial, all right," Judge William Sullivan said. "I know there were over 80 witnesses. There were over 300 exhibits. But because of that, I'm going to ask you to go back out."

Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, doesn't deny strangling her children but says postpartum psychosis led to her actions. Prosecutors argue she knew what she was doing. Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility.

READ MORE: What the Lindsay Clancy trial reveals about a broken postpartum mental health system

The jury could convict her of murder or manslaughter, or acquit her if jurors believe her deteriorating mental health was to blame. A conviction could lead to a life prison sentence. If she is acquitted, a judge could still order her confined to a mental health facility if an evaluation determines she is a danger to the public.

Clancy's lawyer argued at the trial that she loved her children, but killed them because she lost her grip on reality — and on herself — due to postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness that can follow childbirth. In the months before the killings, Clancy sought treatment for her worsening mental health, including a stay in a psychiatric hospital.

Prosecutors said Clancy strangled the children because she was depressed and tired of living, and made a conscious choice to kill them before attempting suicide.