Authorities reportedly accuse Light of attempting to photograph members of the jury. She is expected to appear for arraignment Wednesday.
State police had not released extensive information about the allegations by Tuesday evening. Authorities also had not publicly confirmed whether the alleged conduct was directly connected to the Clancy proceedings. It was likewise unclear whether Light had obtained legal representation.
The arrest adds another unexpected development to an already closely watched case that has drawn national attention since the deaths of Clancy’s three young children in January 2023.
Clancy, 36, was a former labor and delivery nurse when the tragedy occurred. Prosecutors allege that she killed her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — inside the family’s Duxbury home on January 24, 2023.
According to the allegations, Clancy strangled the children with exercise bands while her husband was away from the residence. Afterward, she reportedly attempted to take her own life by cutting her wrists and neck before jumping from a second-story window.
The suicide attempt left Clancy paralyzed from the waist down.
Clancy has acknowledged killing her children but has pleaded not guilty to three charges of first-degree murder. Her defense has centered on a lack of criminal responsibility, commonly associated with an insanity defense.
Her attorneys have argued that postpartum psychosis and other mental health problems played a significant role in the deaths.
Prosecutors, however, have attempted to convince jurors that Clancy understood the consequences and unlawfulness of what she was doing.
Dr. Kirk Heilbrun, a forensic psychologist who testified for the prosecution, told jurors that he considered Clancy criminally responsible for the killings.
Heilbrun addressed Clancy’s account of experiencing an auditory hallucination involving a male voice. According to Clancy’s account, the voice instructed her to kill her children and then take her own life.
The psychologist characterized the reported hallucination as unusual because Clancy said she experienced the voice specifically during the incident.
Heilbrun ultimately concluded that Clancy understood her actions were wrong and retained the ability to control her behavior according to the law.
During closing arguments, prosecutor Jennifer Sprague argued that the evidence demonstrated Clancy made a conscious decision.
Sprague told jurors that Clancy “knew what she did was wrong. She could conform her behavior to the law, and chose not to.”
Sprague also argued, “Those kids were her protective factor. Those kids were keeping her from ending her misery, and so she had to remove the protective factor. … But it was a choice.”
Those arguments are now at the center of the jury’s deliberations.
The panel consists of nine women and three men. Jurors began considering the case on the afternoon of August 27 after more than five weeks of testimony.
The trial featured testimony from more than 80 witnesses and included approximately 300 exhibits.
By Tuesday morning, September 1, jurors had spent roughly 23 hours deliberating over four days. Then came a major warning sign for the prosecution and defense alike.
The jury sent a note to Judge William Sullivan stating, “After many hours of deliberation, we are unable to come to a unanimous decision.”
Rather than immediately ending deliberations, Sullivan instructed the panel to continue its work. The judge pointed to the considerable length of the trial as one reason for asking jurors to keep deliberating.
The jurors returned to the case for several more hours before ultimately asking to be excused at approximately 3:30 p.m.
They are scheduled to resume deliberations Wednesday morning at 9 a.m.
The jury’s inability to reach an agreement has left the case at a critical crossroads. Depending on the evidence and the jury’s conclusions, possible outcomes include convictions for first-degree murder, second-degree murder, or manslaughter.
Jurors could also find Clancy not guilty, or determine that she was not criminally responsible because of a qualifying mental disorder.
For now, however, there is no verdict.
And with deliberations continuing, Tuesday’s courthouse arrest involving an alleged attempt to photograph jurors has introduced yet another unusual development surrounding one of Massachusetts’ most closely followed criminal trials.
The focus will return to the jury Wednesday as the panel once again takes up the question that has dominated the courtroom for weeks: whether Clancy should be held criminally responsible for the deaths of her three children.
