BOSTON (AP) — Lindsay Clancy shouldn’t be tried a second time for killing her three young children because prosecutors don’t have enough evidence, her lawyer told a judge Thursday, saying the court should decide she’s not guilty by reason of insanity.
Eleven of 12 jurors were ready to clear Clancy of criminal responsibility last Friday, but their deadlock forced the judge to declare a mistrial, leaving the case unresolved.
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District Attorney for Plymouth County Timothy Cruz, front, leaves court after the judge declared a mistrial in Lindsay Clancy's murder trial at Plymouth County Superior Court, Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Plymouth, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Judge William Sullivan indicates he was going to declare a mistrial before changing course and giving Lindsay Clancy's defense attorney one hour to appeal as the jury in the case has indicated they they are unable to reach a verdict on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington and defendant Lindsay Clancy listen to Judge William Sullivan speak with the jury after declaring a mistrial at court in Plymouth, Mass., on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Defendant Lindsay Clancy looks at the jury after Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial in Clancy's murder trial on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Attorney Kevin Reddington's motion asked the same judge to acquit Clancy, which would prevent a second trial. Prosecutors have yet to say whether they'll seek to put the 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse on trial again, and Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz did not respond to a phone message Thursday seeking comment.
Neither side disputed that Clancy strangled 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan Clancy in the family's home in 2023 before trying to end her own life. But her attorney said she was a loving mother in the grip of a rare condition called postpartum psychosis, while prosecutors argued she knew what she was doing.
The trial generated intense interest for weeks, drawing attention to maternal mental health after childbirth.
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.
Under Massachusetts law, prosecutors had to prove either that Clancy did not have a mental disease or defect or that, despite having one, she retained the substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of her actions or conform her conduct to the law.
Reddington argued in Thursday’s court filing that prosecutors proved neither, and asked Judge William Sullivan to consider the motion at a court conference scheduled for Sept. 29.
The defense attorney said none of the psychiatric experts, either called by the prosecution or defense, disputed that Clancy was suffering from a mental illness. “The testimony bears on which illness she had, not on whether she had one,” he wrote.
Prosecutors pointed to Clancy’s actions in the weeks, days and hours leading up to the killings — driving, planning a child’s birthday party, bringing her daughter to a doctor’s appointment — and her ability to perform other everyday tasks as evidence she was of sound mind when the killings took place.
“Competence at routine tasks,” Reddington argued Thursday, “during a crisis which every witness agreed was acute, is not proof of criminal responsibility beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The judge acknowledged during jury deliberations that the trial had been emotionally and physically exhausting for everyone. Much of the testimony was excruciating to hear, from the heartbreaking 911 call made by the children’s father who found their bodies, to the descriptions of how they died.
Clancy was brought to tears several times. At one point, the judge called a short break as Clancy’s loud sobs filled the courtroom while the children’s autopsy photos were shown. She remains paralyzed from the waist down after jumping from the home's second story, and is expected to stay at a psychiatric hospital until her case is resolved.
District Attorney for Plymouth County Timothy Cruz, front, leaves court after the judge declared a mistrial in Lindsay Clancy's murder trial at Plymouth County Superior Court, Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Plymouth, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Judge William Sullivan indicates he was going to declare a mistrial before changing course and giving Lindsay Clancy's defense attorney one hour to appeal as the jury in the case has indicated they they are unable to reach a verdict on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington and defendant Lindsay Clancy listen to Judge William Sullivan speak with the jury after declaring a mistrial at court in Plymouth, Mass., on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Defendant Lindsay Clancy looks at the jury after Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial in Clancy's murder trial on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices keep climbing as the war with Iran keeps clogging the global flow of crude, and they leaped Thursday to their highest levels since before the summer. That worsened worries about inflation and cranked up pressure within the bond market, helping to send stocks lower again on Wall Street.
The S&P 500 fell 0.6% for a fourth straight loss, its longest such streak since June, though it’s not far from its all-time high set last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 316 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.7%.
Stocks sank under the weight of rising oil prices. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed another 6.3% and briefly topped $108 per barrel for the first time since May before settling at $107.63.
It’s jumped from less than $72 in early July as hopes fade that the war with Iran will allow oil to flow freely again from the Middle East anytime soon. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that oil prices likely won’t come down until after the U.S. midterm elections in November.
The jump has vaulted the price for a gallon of regular gasoline to an average of nearly $4.28 across the United States, according to AAA. That’s up nearly 34% from a year earlier and is not only costing people more at the pump but also through higher prices for all kinds of products that move by truck to store shelves.
A report on Thursday said inflation at the U.S. wholesale level accelerated to 5.4% last month from 4.8% in July, and retailers could eventually pass such increases in prices onto shoppers. A report is coming on Friday that will show how much inflation U.S. consumers are feeling.
The typical move to rein in high inflation is for the Federal Reserve to raise its main interest rate, the federal funds rate. Such a move then filters out through the rest of the bond market, makes it more expensive for U.S. households and businesses to borrow money, slows the overall economy and undercuts prices for investments. That hopefully would remove some of inflation’s fuel.
A report on Thursday suggested the U.S. job market may remain solid, with fewer workers applying for unemployment benefits last week. That could give the Fed more confidence that the economy could withstand higher interest rates.
Following Thursday’s reports, traders see a roughly 73% chance the Fed will raise the federal funds rate at its meeting next week. That’s up from the 61% probability seen the day before, according to data from CME Group. That’s also despite Trump’s consistent lobbying for interest rates to go lower rather than higher.
The Fed’s counterpart in Europe, the European Central Bank, raised its own interest rates on Thursday in hopes of getting inflation in check. It cited “the conflict in the Middle East” and how it “continues to generate inflation pressures.”
It all pushed the yield on the 10-year Treasury up to 4.95% from 4.83% late Wednesday, which is a significant move for the bond market.
It’s up from just 3.97% before the war with Iran began and is back to where it was in the autumn of 2023. That was after the Fed cranked the federal funds rate higher to get super-high inflation coming out of the COVID pandemic under better control.
Higher yields mean investors can make more money putting their money into bonds, which can in turn make investors less willing to pay high prices for stocks and other investments that are riskier than bonds.
Some investors see a 5% yield on the 10-year Treasury as the next potential flashpoint. But strategists at Bank of America’s Research Investment Committee suggest 7% may be the more important threshold, pointing to peaks for expensive stocks around that point in the past.
In the meantime, the rising 10-year Treasury yield is making mortgages more expensive and hurting the housing industry. One report on Thursday said the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate hit its highest level in over 14 months, while a second one said sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in August to their slowest pace in more than a year.
That helped sent stocks of homebuilders lower, including drops of 3.5% for Lennar and 2.4% for D.R. Horton.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, Macy’s fell 4.7% even though the retailer reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. While raising its forecast for earnings this fiscal year, it warned that “there are macroeconomic and geopolitical factors that could influence” how much its customers feel comfortable spending.
Macy’s said it received $116 million in tariff refunds from the government — $98 million during the quarter and another $18 million after the quarter ended. Macy’s CEO Tony Spring told The Associated Press Thursday that it’s using some of the proceeds to lower prices on certain items like furniture and other big-ticket purchases.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 44.66 points to 7,591.70. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 316.56 to 52,064.10, and the Nasdaq composite sank 171.62 to 26,081.72.
In stock markets abroad, indexes slipped across much of Europe and Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.3% for one of the world’s biggest moves.
AP Business Writers Anne D’Innocenzio and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.
Trader Edward Curran works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Specialists Dilip Patel, right, and Trader Robert Charmak, center, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Options trader Matthew Hefter works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
The per-gallon price for regular unleaded fuel is displayed electronically on a sign outside a Conoco gasoline station Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A worker passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics Co. stock price at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
