PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Lindsay Clancy is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday for the first time since her high-profile triple-murder trial ended in a hung jury, with the hearing expected to clarify the next phase of the case.
After the Sept. 4 mistrial, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz has not said whether prosecutors will retry Clancy on the original first-degree murder charges. Other possibilities include reducing the charges, negotiating a plea agreement or dismissing the case.
Kevin Reddington, the 36-year-old Duxbury woman’s attorney, has pursued a series of last-minute legal motions while also seeking public attention for his effort to have the charges reduced or dismissed.
Reddington is also calling for an investigation into the only juror who declined to find Clancy not guilty at trial, arguing that the holdout may have engaged in misconduct.
The 75-year-old defense attorney has said he would consider a deal with prosecutors if it spared Clancy from prison. Reddington maintains that she needs medical and psychiatric treatment instead.
Should the district attorney’s office announce plans for a retrial, the judge could also establish a new trial date during Tuesday’s hearing.
In the weeks since the mistrial, several jurors have spoken publicly and said 11 of the 12 panel members accepted the defense’s argument that Clancy was not criminally responsible for the Jan. 24, 2023, deaths of her children: 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan. Prosecutors said the children were strangled with exercise bands.
Reddington argued that Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, was experiencing severe postpartum psychosis. He said she hallucinated a voice instructing her to kill her children and then end her own life.
During the five-week trial, jurors heard that Clancy sought extensive mental-health care in the four months before the killings. She met regularly with a psychiatrist, received treatment at two perinatal clinics, called a suicide hotline twice and voluntarily spent five days at a psychiatric facility.
Five different providers prescribed Clancy a total of 13 powerful psychiatric medications during that period. Reddington contended that the changing prescriptions contributed to the deterioration of her mental state.
Several jurors later accused the lone holdout, Michael P. Desronvil, of expressing doubts about Clancy’s guilt while nevertheless refusing to support a not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity verdict because of the brutality of the killings.
NEXT UP: Unexpected New Chapter: Texas AG’s Mistress After Scandal Unraveled
Reddington has asked officials to investigate Desronvil’s conduct before and during deliberations. His requests include examining whether Desronvil failed to disclose a previous arrest on his juror questionnaire and whether he accessed “outside information” on his cellphone while the jury was deliberating.
Desronvil has retained attorney Edward Paltzik, who accused Reddington of infringing on his client’s rights by seeking an investigation based on his position in the case. Paltzik said Desronvil followed his conscience and remained convinced that Clancy was guilty.
According to his attorney, Desronvil, who is a father, had “zero doubt” about Clancy’s culpability.
On the night her children died, Clancy also attempted suicide by cutting her wrists and neck, taking some of her prescription medication and jumping from a second-floor bedroom window. The fall left her with a spinal injury and paraplegia; she now uses a wheelchair.
Clancy has remained at Tewksbury Hospital since her arrest and is under constant observation because of her suicide risk. At trial, she relied on an insanity defense in an effort to secure hospitalization rather than a prison sentence.
Clancy repeatedly broke down in sobs during the emotionally grueling proceedings.
One strategy Reddington hopes prosecutors will consider is reducing the charges to second-degree murder. That could allow Clancy to choose a shorter bench trial, with a judge rather than a jury deciding the case.
An attorney for Clancy’s former husband, Patrick Clancy, said the prospect of reliving the events in another trial would be “extraordinarily painful.”
Patrick was the prosecution’s first witness. He testified that he returned home to find two of his children dead on the basement floor and the third fatally wounded. Outside, he discovered his injured wife lying on the frozen ground after her suicide attempt.
Patrick has since remarried to fertility specialist Rachel Danis, who is pregnant with their first child.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
