Lindsay Clancy’s jury is deadlocked. What happens if there’s a hung jury?

( NewsNation ) — The jury in the Lindsay Clancy trial informed the judge Tuesday it was deadlocked and unable to reach a unanimous decision.

Judge William Sullivan urged the jury to continue reviewing the facts of the case and sent them back to deliberate.

Clancy is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan Clancy in the basement of the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts.

Here’s what can happen if the jury is unable to reach a verdict.

Prosecutors have the option of retrying in front of a different jury in a new trial.

She strangled the kids with exercise bands, then tried to take her own life by jumping from a second-story window, an attempt her attorneys say left her paralyzed from the waist down. Her defense argues she was in postpartum psychosis and should not be criminally responsible for the deaths.

Under Massachusetts law , a defendant is not guilty if they lacked criminal responsibility when they committed the offense.

Prosecutors had the burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Clancy did not have a mental disease or defect at the time of the crime, or that, even if she did, she “retained the substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness or criminality of (her) conduct and to conform (her) conduct to the requirements of the law.”

Twelve jurors —nine women and three men — are deliberating the case following Clancy’s trial.

If they cannot reach a unanimous decision, the foreperson alerts the judge that the jury is deadlocked.

The judge has the legal authority to keep the jurors deliberating.

If the jury foreperson returns again to alert the judge they are still deadlocked, it’s up to the judge to decide whether they have spent enough time deliberating before declaring a mistrial.

The trial is over, but the prosecution then determines whether the case will be retried. They can also negotiate a plea deal with the defendant.

Karen Read’s first Massachusetts trial ended in hung jury

Karen Read was recently tried for murder in Massachusetts in a case that ended in a hung jury, before she was eventually found not guilty in her following trial. The jury deliberated for 20 hours after her first trial.

Read, 46, was accused of striking her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her car and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in January 2022. She has maintained her innocence, suggesting she was framed and alleging a cover-up by law enforcement.

She was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene.