Criminal or victim?

For 15 days, Jodi Fournier sat outside the courthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts. She listened, waited and watched the trial, convinced it was her calling and personal duty to support Lindsay Clancy in person.

Clancy, a 36-year-old mother and nurse, admitted strangling her three young children at their home in Duxbury in early 2023. She said she followed instructions from a voice she heard in her head. Afterward, she tried to end her own life.

On Thursday, Judge William Sullivan declared the seven-week trial a mistrial after the jury failed to reach a verdict. Jurors had deliberated for 40 hours across three attempts but could not agree on whether Clancy was guilty or whether mental impairment made her legally unaccountable. The case focused on severe postpartum depression and bipolar disorder.

The deadlock has mirrored the wider division surrounding the case. American juries rely on ordinary citizens to decide guilt or innocence, and serious criminal cases generally require a unanimous decision. The jury in Clancy’s case could not provide one.

Fournier was not alone outside the courthouse. Katelyn Kazmirci, from North Carolina, persuaded her mother to stop at the courthouse while they were traveling to a funeral. Kazmirci had followed the trial on TikTok and become absorbed in Clancy’s struggle and the defense led by Kevin Reddington, who is seeking to appeal Sullivan’s mistrial ruling. The case has prompted a fierce public argument over a central question: is Clancy a criminal or a victim?