Lindsay Clancy is set to appear in court on Tuesday before Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan for a crucial hearing.
The key hearing was followed by a mistrial declared on September 4 after an 11-1 deadlock prevented a unanimous verdict. The majority of jurors favored a verdict of non-guilty by reason of insanity. But it was a single holdout juror who blocked it.
Since declaring mistrial, Clancy’s lawyers have filed a series of motions pushing for the case to be dismissed.
Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz’s office is weighing its next steps, which include retrying Clancy on first-degree murder charges which carry a life sentence), pursuing lesser second-degree murder charges, or reaching a plea deal.
Judge Sullivan hopes for a potential retrial later this year. The 36-year-old Clancy was charged with killing her three children in their Duxbury Massachusetts home on January 24, 2023 before attempting to take her own life which left her paralyzed.
In her defence, her defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, argued she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis and did not understand right from wrong at the time. Therefore, her legal time filed motions to dismiss the case and bar a retrial on double jeopardy grounds.
On the contrary, prosecutors argued that she is not legally insane and what she did was an act of deliberation. She committed murders through calculated planning and making intentional choices by sending her husband out of the house.
Defense lawyers are requesting access to confidential records regarding the jury and the holdout, as well as permission to question him about his truthfulness during jury selection and cellphone usage.
The holdout’s lawyer, Edward Paltzik, has criticized the defense’s tactic in an interview that his client, Michael Desronvil, “had zero doubt” and “rigidly applied the reasonable doubt standard.”
