A judge has rejected Lindsay Clancy’s request to dismiss the case and find her not guilty in the deaths of her three children.
Clancy’s legal motion claimed the evidence was insufficient on two key issues: proving the identity of the person who committed the killings and establishing criminal responsibility.
But on Thursday, Justice William F. Sullivan denied the motion, ruling that the evidence “was sufficient to have satisfied any rational trier of fact beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Clancy now faces a retrial after jurors last month failed to reach a verdict on whether she was guilty of murdering or manslaughter in the deaths of Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan in January 2023.
Earlier this week, inside Plymouth County Superior Court in Massachusetts, defense attorney Kevin Reddington argued that there was no evidence proving Clancy killed her children.
Reddington made the argument while asking the judge to throw out the case, insisting prosecutors had presented no evidence showing that Clancy carried out the killings.
“This entire case is based on speculation. Where is the admission? Where did she say that she did this?” he asked.
Speaking animatedly in the packed courtroom, Reddington said the former nurse had been demonized by the public, including by the president.
Clancy speaks with her lawyer Kevin Reddington during proceedings in her murder trial
Justice William F. Sullivan denied the motion, writing that the evidence “was sufficient to have satisfied any rational trier of fact beyond a reasonable doubt”
“She’s a demon and possessed and should be executed,” Reddington said, describing what he claimed people had been saying. “This is coming from politicians, from President Trump, all the way down.”
Reddington also attacked the investigation into the children’s deaths, repeatedly asking where the evidence was that Clancy had committed the killings.
Clancy appeared in court alongside Reddington for the first time since her high-profile murder trial ended in a mistrial.
Seated in a wheelchair at the defense table, she watched as her lawyer and prosecutors argued over whether she should face a second trial.
Reddington said Clancy had no blood on her socks after cutting herself and jumping from a bedroom window. He also argued that she had no memory of killing her children after emerging from a coma.
Instead, he said, police simply told her that she had killed her children, despite unresolved questions about the timeline of events that day.
Reddington maintained that flaws in the investigation meant the state lacked probable cause to establish that Clancy was the perpetrator.
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Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham dismissed the argument as “laughable,” noting that it was the first time the defense had raised the claim.
In addition to challenging probable cause, Reddington argued that prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to prove the 36-year-old was criminally responsible for the deaths.
Clancy was charged with murder after strangling her three children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan in 2023
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington questioned the investigation into Clancy as he argued for a required finding of not guilty
Firing back, Buckingham argued that a defendant who suffers from mental illness can commit crimes and still be criminally responsible.
Judge Sullivan said he would take the matter under advisement and rule at a later date – before handing down the ruling on Thursday.
The 36-year-old labor and delivery nurse strangled the children with exercise bands in the basement after sending her husband, Patrick Clancy, out of the home to run errands.
She then tried to kill herself, cutting her wrists and neck and jumping from the second-floor bedroom window. Clancy survived but was left paralyzed from the waist down.
The mother of three did not deny killing her children but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, saying she was suffering from severe postpartum depression and psychosis at the time.
But ultimately, after 38 hours of deliberations, the 12 jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict and, on September 4, a mistrial was declared.
It turned out that a lone holdout juror, identified as Michael Desronvil, refused to join the other 11 in finding her not guilty by reason of insanity.
Desronvil’s role in the trial was one of several matters that took center stage on Tuesday as the defense and prosecution faced off once again inside the courtroom over a handful motions filed since the mistrial was declared.
At the start of the hearing, Judge William Sullivan tabled several of the motions for a later date and several matters that had been expected failed to come to fruition.
Arguments about the defense’s request to investigate Desronvil, a defense motion to dismiss the case on double jeopardy grounds, and a newly-filed motion from the state requesting a gag order preventing Reddington from speaking out about the case were all put on pause.
A date of November 2 was set for a follow-up hearing where those matters will be argued.
No new trial date was set – after the two sides both asked the judge to delay the matter and Reddington said he would not be available for a retrial until June.
Judge Sullivan told the lawyers to prepare to set a date at the November 2 hearing.