A judge in Massachusetts ended a murder trial on Friday. The jury could not agree.

Lindsay Clancy, 36, was on trial in the deaths of her three children. The children died at the family home in Duxbury, Massachusetts. The date was January 24, 2023. Cora was 5 years old. Dawson was 3. Callan was 8 months old.

Judge William Sullivan called a mistrial on September 4, 2026. The trial had run about five weeks. The jury then talked for close to seven days.

The jury foreperson sent the judge a note. It said, "It is with a heavy heart that we report we are unable to come to a unanimous decision."

Here is what a mistrial means. The trial ends with no verdict. No one is found guilty. No one is found not guilty. The case is not over. It just stops where it is.

A hung jury is why this one stopped. In a murder trial, all 12 jurors must agree. One juror can hold up the whole case. That is what happened here.

CBS News Boston reported the vote was 11 to 1. Eleven jurors wanted to clear her. One did not. The jury had nine women and three men, NPR reported.

Clancy did not claim she was somewhere else. Her lawyers said she was very sick. They said she had postpartum psychosis. That is a rare mental illness. It can hit a mother in the weeks after birth. It can bring on voices and false beliefs.

Her side asked the jury to find her not criminally responsible. In Massachusetts, that is the name for the insanity defense. It means the person did the act. But the illness was so bad she could not know it was wrong. She could not stop herself. A jury that agrees does not send that person to prison. The court then looks at sending her to a locked hospital instead.

The state saw it another way. Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz put on his own experts. They told the jury she knew what she was doing.

Cruz was not backing down after the mistrial. "Children were murdered, and it is our job to seek justice," he said, per WBUR.

Her lawyer, Kevin Reddington, put the blame on the one juror who held out. "It's a very sad case," he told ABC News.

Both sides go back to court on September 29, 2026. That is a status hearing. It is set for 9 a.m.

Three things can happen from there. The state can try her again in front of a new jury. The two sides can work out a deal. Or the DA can drop the case for good. PBS reported that legal experts think a new trial is likely.

Massachusetts has been down this road before. The Karen Read case ended in a mistrial in 2024. The state tried her again. The second jury cleared her of the murder charge.

Clancy is not going home. She has been held at Tewksbury State Hospital for more than three years, CBS News Boston reported. She is paralyzed from the waist down. She was hurt badly the same day her children died.

This is not a South Texas story. El Tejano is running it anyway. The reason is simple. Mothers here get sick the same way mothers do in Massachusetts.

Postpartum psychosis is rare. ABC News reported it hits about 1 or 2 moms out of every 1,000 births. It usually starts within days or weeks of the birth. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says it can bring false beliefs. It can also make a mom see or hear things that are not there. Doctors say it can be treated.

Help is free and it is close. The National Maternal Mental Health Hotline is 1-833-852-6262. Federal health officials say it is free and private. It is open all day and all night. Counselors take calls and texts in English and in Spanish.

A charge is not proof. Everyone is innocent until a court says otherwise.