By Nate Raymond
BOSTON, Oct 1 (Reuters) – A Massachusetts judge who oversaw Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial rejected a request on Thursday by her lawyers to declare her not guilty of murder, saying prosecutors presented sufficient evidence for a jury to find her responsible for killing her three young children in 2023.
Clancy’s lawyers had urged Judge William Sullivan in Plymouth to conclude that prosecutors had failed to prove she could be held criminally responsible for her children’s deaths despite suffering from what they said was mental illness. Sullivan declared a mistrial on September 4 after the jury deadlocked.
No one at that trial disputed that Clancy strangled her three children with exercise bands on January 24, 2023, in the basement of their home in the Boston suburb of Duxbury. She then cut herself with a knife and jumped from a second-story window in an attempt to end her own life, leaving her paralyzed.
But Clancy’s lawyers contended at a post-trial hearing earlier this week that prosecutors had failed to present any evidence during the trial proving she had killed Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and 8-month-old Callan.
They also argued the evidence showed Clancy was in the throes of postpartum psychosis at the time and should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, known in Massachusetts as lack of criminal responsibility.
Sullivan, though, said prosecutors had presented enough physical and circumstantial evidence to allow a jury to conclude that Clancy was the one who strangled the children and was criminally responsible for killing them.
He cited testimony by the prosecution’s expert witnesses who “testified that it was their opinion that the defendant did not lack substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality or wrongfulness of her conduct.”
“Although the defendant also produced expert witnesses who disagreed with the Commonwealth’s experts, it is within the discretion of the fact finder to place little or no weight on that evidence,” Sullivan wrote.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz’s office has yet to lay out its plans for a potential retrial of the 36-year-old. Sullivan at a hearing on Tuesday stressed that he did not want the case to linger and told the parties to be ready to discuss a date for a retrial at a November 2 hearing.
If convicted on first-degree murder charges, Clancy would face a sentence of life in prison.
Several jurors in televised interviews after the initial trial said that but for the one holdout juror, they had been prepared to find Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity.
If found not guilty on those grounds, she would be committed to a state psychiatric hospital for evaluation. Her commitment would then be subject to regular review by the court.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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