Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer argues no evidence proves she killed her children

Lindsay Clancy’s defence lawyer told a Massachusetts judge on Tuesday that prosecutors presented no evidence proving Clancy killed her three children, a reversal from the position his team took during her murder trial.

Kevin Reddington made the argument at a status hearing before Judge William Sullivan in Plymouth County Superior Court, the first court appearance since Clancy’s trial ended on Sept. 4 in a mistrial after a jury deadlocked 11 to 1 in her favour.

“Where is the evidence that she did this?” Reddington said, arguing a Rule 25 motion asking Sullivan to enter a finding of not guilty. “This entire case is based on speculation. Where is the admission? Where did she say that she did this?”

During the trial, Reddington did not dispute that Clancy, a 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse, killed the children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — at the family’s home in Duxbury in January 2023. Instead, the defence argued she was not criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, according to the Associated Press. In his opening statement in July, Reddington had told jurors Clancy “knows what happened to those kids,” and in closing arguments he said she was “not guilty of the killing of her children because she was suffering from a disease and defect,” according to CBS News Boston.

On Tuesday, Reddington called the original police investigation “ridiculous” and “horrific,” saying “they just immediately assumed this woman was guilty,” according to CBC News. He argued the evidence, including DNA and fingerprinting on the exercise bands used in the killings, was “woefully deficient.”

He also challenged the reliability of statements Clancy made in the hospital after what prosecutors say was a suicide attempt, saying it was “chilling” that she had no memory of the killings and “was told what happened” by hospital staff.

Prosecutors call argument “laughable”

Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham said the record was “voluminous” with evidence that Clancy killed her children, pointing to DNA found on the exercise bands and testimony from a hospital chaplain that Clancy said she had to kill them. She called Reddington’s argument “laughable” and noted it was the first time the defence had challenged the sufficiency of the evidence rather than Clancy’s criminal responsibility.

Prosecutors maintain Clancy knew her actions were wrong and arranged for her then-husband, Patrick, to leave the house that evening by sending him to pick up medicine for one of their children and dinner for the family, before she strangled the children with exercise bands in the basement.

In court papers filed Monday, prosecutors said the evidence at trial was “sufficient to permit any rational trier of fact” to find the elements of murder and criminal responsibility proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

No trial date set

Sullivan took the arguments under advisement and did not rule from the bench. He said he wants to set a date for a second trial at the next hearing, scheduled for Nov. 2, when he will also hear arguments over a defence motion to dismiss the case on double-jeopardy grounds and over the conduct of the holdout juror.

Reddington’s team has argued the mistrial was declared without “manifest necessity” because Sullivan refused defence requests to question the holdout juror, identified as Michael Desronvil, after the jury foreperson twice reported he was not following the law on reasonable doubt. Desronvil has said through his lawyer that he had no doubts about his position; in a brief statement to Fox News’ “Hannity” on Monday, he said “the whole focus has been on me, but we want to reel everything back and put the focus on the three angels,” referring to the children.

Reddington told reporters outside court that his argument was not new. “It’s not new rocket science by any means. It’s the fact that they cannot prove probable cause,” he said. Massachusetts defence attorney Elyse Hershon told CNN that regardless of a lawyer’s trial strategy, “the commonwealth still has to prove it was her.”

Prosecutors also filed a motion Tuesday seeking to bar Clancy’s lawyers from making “extrajudicial statements to the media” that could prejudice future proceedings, citing televised interviews Reddington gave during the trial, including to CNN.

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz told reporters his office has not decided whether to retry Clancy on first-degree murder charges, pursue lesser charges such as second-degree murder or manslaughter, or drop the case. “We’re doing a very thorough review right now, and we’re going to continue to do our job to make sure that we do what’s best in the interest of justice and the interests of the three children,” Cruz said.

Clancy remains held without bail at Tewksbury Hospital, a psychiatric facility about 30 miles north of Boston, where she has a diagnosis of bipolar II disorder and is under constant one-to-one supervision over suicide concerns, according to trial testimony cited by CNN. She faces up to life in prison if convicted of murder at a retrial, or commitment to a mental health facility if acquitted.

About a dozen supporters, most dressed in pink, gathered outside the courthouse Tuesday, as they had during the trial, to show support for Clancy and raise awareness of maternal mental health. Neither Cruz’s office nor Reddington would say whether plea negotiations are underway. If a retrial goes ahead, Reddington said he would not be available before June because of his caseload.