Clancy's lawyer asks judge to rule not guilty after murder trial ends in mistrial

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington has asked Judge William Sullivan to rule directly that Lindsay Clancy is not guilty of murdering her three children by reason of insanity, arguing prosecutors failed to prove she understood her actions were wrong despite suffering serious mental illness at the time.

The request comes six days after Sullivan declared a mistrial in Plymouth, Massachusetts, when the 12-member jury reported repeatedly over seven days of deliberation that it could not reach a unanimous verdict. Shortly before the motion was filed, a fourth juror spoke publicly, describing how one holdout member blocked the panel from reaching consensus.

Prosecutors have not indicated whether they intend to retry the case. In his motion, Reddington argued that even the prosecution's own expert witnesses acknowledged Clancy suffered from a serious mental illness at the time of the killings, and that the evidence presented at most showed she retained the ability to carry out familiar tasks — not that she understood the wrongfulness of what she was doing.

Background

Clancy, 36, has admitted to strangling her three children — five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan — with exercise bands in the basement of the family's home in Duxbury, a Boston suburb, on 24 January 2023. She then cut herself with a knife and jumped from a second-story window in an apparent suicide attempt that left her paralyzed.

At trial, Reddington argued Clancy should be found not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility, saying she was experiencing postpartum psychosis at the time. According to his motion, 11 of the 12 jurors were prepared to reach that verdict, but one holdout, despite acknowledging reasonable doubt, refused to agree, preventing a unanimous decision. Sullivan is scheduled to hear arguments on the motion on 29 September.