The ACT Supreme Court jury in the trial of a daughter accused of murdering her mother with a claw hammer has been discharged after failing to reach a verdict.
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Gabrielle Woutersz pleaded not guilty to the murder of Norma Cheryl Woutersz, 56, after she repeatedly hit her mother's head with the hammer and tried to bury her body in the backyard of the family home in Dunlop in October 2014.
Chief Justice Helen Murrell formally discharged the jury on Tuesday afternoon following a month-long trial and almost three weeks of deliberations.
She had told them in her directions they could return one of three possible verdicts: guilty of murder, not guilty of murder, or not guilty by reason of mental impairment.
Several jury members grew emotional and shed tears as Ms Murrell thanked them for their service to the community in what had been an "incredibly difficult" trial.
The court heard jurors had earlier indicated to the judge they hadn't been able to reach a unanimous decision after attempting multiple strategies.
Woutersz, who appeared via audiovisual link, did not react as Ms Murrell addressed the jury for the last time.
The judge acknowledged the jurors had been detained for much longer than expected and deliberated for almost as long as the case had run, noting it had likely been an "exhausting and very difficult process".
She pointed out the trial involved very serious offences, complex expert evidence and had been "very difficult from multiple perspectives".
Ms Murrell accepted the jurors had tried their hardest to come to a unanimous decision but they could not reach a verdict.
"It's just one of those things ... sometimes it can't be helped," she said.
The outcome means Woutersz, 25, will remain in custody at the Alexander Maconochie Centre and face a retrial in August next year.
Ms Murrell told Woutersz that date was due to a series of long trials listed in the court next year, meaning a lack of courtrooms and judges to hear another lengthy case.
The trial had heard it was not disputed the accused killed her mother, or that she was in the grip of an acute psychotic episode at the time.
Prosecutors said Woutersz's state of mind was fuelled by her long-term illicit drug habit, which included binges on ice, while her lawyers have argued she suffered schizophrenia and should be found not guilty due to mental impairment.
The trial heard Woutersz killed her mother then dragged her body into the backyard and tried to bury it in a planter box she had emptied dirt from.
She was arrested after her father arrived home to find his wife tied to a stepladder by her ankles in the backyard and the accused cooking eggs in her underwear inside the house.
Woutersz was experiencing acute psychotic symptoms, which included hearing voices, at the time of the alleged murder, and had sought mental health help in the ACT when she returned from interstate a few days earlier.
The Crown case was that Woutersz's psychotic episode and the killing had been caused by her long-term consumption of illicit substances, largely ice, and her drug use and bizarre behaviour had peaked at that time.
Prosecutor Shane Drumgold had argued Woutersz knew what she was doing when she attacked her mother, knew that it was wrong, and actively pursued a mental impairment defence in the months after the killing.
But defence barrister Bernard Collaery said Woutersz suffered a long-standing mental illness, namely schizophrenia, and that meant she was not able to properly understand her actions on the day of the fatal attack were wrong.
He rejected the prosecution's suggestion his client was "a damaged ice addict" and said six psychiatric experts had been consistent in their diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.
Mr Collaery said there had been no evidence that Woutersz had taken ice more than a month before the killing.
The case will be mentioned in the Supreme Court for directions early next year.
