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Lindsay Clancy attorney again argues for a not guilty verdict following mistrial

Flint McColgan, Boston Herald on

Published in News & Features

BOSTON — Lindsay Clancy’s attorney is formally arguing that the court find her not guilty following last week’s mistrial.

“The government did not present evidence that allows a juror earnestly seeking the truth to determine that the defendant’s guilt on the crime was proved on each element of the offense,” defense attorney Kevin Reddington wrote in his “Renewed Motion for Required Finding of Not Guilty,” filed in Plymouth Superior Court on Thursday morning.

Clancy was on trial for the strangulation murders of her three children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, at their Duxbury home on Jan. 24, 2023.

Reddington wrote that “the first route to conviction was closed by the Commonwealth’s own witnesses” in that all six experts, three for each side, “agreed that Ms. Clancy suffered from a serious mental illness” when she killed her children. He added that the prosecution’s rebuttal experts “disputed the label, not the fact: a major depressive episode according to” one and “bipolar II disorder with disassociation according” to another.

“No rational jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that she had no mental disease or defect when the Commonwealth’s own proof established that she did,” Reddington wrote. “The Commonwealth’s case therefore rested entirely on the second route: proof beyond a reasonable doubt that, despite that illness, Ms. Clancy retained the substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of her conduct or to conform it to the law.”

Reddington forecasted the motion during an appearance Wednesday on "CBS Mornings," adding then that he is making the motion to dismiss “based on what’s called double jeopardy grounds, because there’s no ... manifest necessity.”

That appearance followed one the day before on "Good Morning America," where Reddington appealed to President Donald Trump to pardon his client.

Reddington never contested that his client killed the children, but instead argued that she did so in the throes of postpartum psychosis and is thus not criminally responsible for the murders. The prosecution had argued that she is criminally responsible.

 

Prosecutors needed to show, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Clancy didn’t have a mental disease or defect, and if she did, that it didn’t stop her from appreciating the difference between right and wrong and prevent her from obeying the law at the time.

After seven days, the jury composed of nine women and three men failed to reach a unanimous verdict, leading Judge William Sullivan to declare a mistrial.

In notes handed to Sullivan during the deliberation, the jury continuously cited deadlock. That was even following Sullivan’s reading of the Tuey-Rodriguez warning, the strongest message a judge can use to urge the jury to reach consensus.

Reddington indicated during the final days of deliberation that “There is one juror who refuses to listen to the law” and motioned for the removal of that juror. Sullivan denied that request.

Reddington had previously motioned for a required finding of not guilty at the close of the prosecution’s case on Aug. 17. That was denied.

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