Clancy Jury Deadlocked on Sixth Day; No Mistrial

No mistrial has been declared. Judge William Sullivan has the power to declare one; as of Thursday's session, he had not. PBS NewsHour put it plainly: if jurors ultimately cannot agree on a verdict, Sullivan "could declare a mistrial."

The New York Post reported that the judge "may be forced to declare a mistrial if he gets a third impasse note." That is the Post's reading of the procedure, not a court ruling.

The Daily Mail, in a live blog, reported that Sullivan issued what it called a controversial instruction to the deadlocked jury, and that Clancy's defense lawyer said Wednesday her mind was "on her children." Those characterizations are the Daily Mail's.

So the dispute is criminal responsibility, not who did it. CTV News laid out the paths: if the jury finds Clancy was criminally responsible, it could convict her of murder or manslaughter. If she is acquitted, a judge could still order her confined to a mental health facility if an evaluation finds she poses a danger to the public.

What is not established

No verdict has been returned and no mistrial has been declared. No source in the coverage reviewed for this article reports either. The words "mistrial looms," "growing risk" and "chances grow" appear in headlines from NBC News, CTV News, PBS NewsHour and the wire copy carried by WKBN and abc27 — they describe a possibility, not an event.

Nothing in this coverage puts a number on the odds of a mistrial, and nothing reports what prosecutors would do if one were declared.