Lindsay Clancy in court after mistrial as lawyers fight over retrial

Lindsay Clancy returned to a Massachusetts courtroom on Tuesday for the first hearing since her murder trial ended in a mistrial, with her lawyers asking a judge to acquit her or dismiss the case and prosecutors opposing the request and seeking a gag order.

Plymouth County Judge William Sullivan scheduled the hearing after declaring a mistrial on 4 September, when a single juror prevented the 12-member jury from reaching a unanimous verdict on whether to convict Clancy or find her not guilty by reason of insanity, Reuters reported.

Defence lawyer Kevin Reddington asked the court to find Clancy not guilty on three counts of first-degree murder, telling the judge “where is the evidence” that she killed her children, according to the New York Post — an apparent reversal from the trial strategy, which did not contest the killings and argued she was in the throes of postpartum psychosis. Reddington said the trial judge’s refusal to split the trial into two parts had put him in a “conundrum” in which he had to admit she carried out the crimes to argue criminal responsibility.

The defence also argued a retrial would violate double-jeopardy protections, claiming Sullivan declared the mistrial without “manifest necessity” and declined to question the holdout juror, Geo News reported. Several jurors have said in televised interviews that all but the one holdout were prepared to find Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity.

Prosecutors pushed back on Tuesday, filing a motion opposing the not-guilty request and asking the judge for a gag order barring lawyers from making statements to the media, citing “inflammatory” comments by Reddington that they say tainted the jury pool.

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz’s office has not said whether it will retry Clancy, 36. Sullivan has said he would ideally like any retrial to occur later this year.

Clancy admits she strangled her three children — Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and eight-month-old Callan — with exercise bands on 24 January 2023 in the basement of their home in Duxbury. She then cut herself with a knife and jumped from a second-storey window in an attempt to end her own life, leaving her paralysed. She remains in custody at Tewksbury State Hospital, where she has been held since 2023.

Sources

• Reuters via SRN News — Lindsay Clancy returns to court for key hearing after US murder case mistrial
• Geo News — Prosecutors seek gag order, oppose not-guilty request
• New York Post — Lawyer asks “where is the evidence” in post-mistrial hearing
• Jerusalem Post (Reuters) — Clancy returns to court after mistrial