What to expect when Lindsay Clancy returns to court later this month
After a mistrial was declared Sept. 4 in Lindsay Clancy’s murder case, the next step in the closely watched proceedings is set for Sept. 29, when she is scheduled to appear in court again.
Katherine Loftus, a legal expert who is not connected to the case, exclusively told Oxygen that the upcoming hearing will likely focus on how prosecutors plan to move forward.
“They’re going to pick a new date for the case to be tried,” Loftus said. “From my perspective, I don’t think there’s any chance that they don’t retry the case, but there might be some, you know, discussion about whether they move forward still on a first-degree murder, if they reduce it to a second degree. So those decisions will still have to be made. And that’s likely what we’ll hear about on Sept. 29. Which is essentially: what is the position of the Commonwealth? What charges are they going to be going forward on? And, when to set a trial date.”
The court date follows the judge’s decision to declare a mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy murder case. In the meantime, Loftus said Clancy is expected to return to a mental health facility as the case awaits its next phase.
“What happens is the bail conditions that were originally set essentially remain in place,” she explained. “So on first-degree murders in Massachusetts, you are held without bail. So she does not have a bail and she’ll remain in state custody. She’s currently in a mental health facility — that’s Tewksbury hospital here in Massachusetts. So she’s not in a house of correction. But she will remain in the custody of the Commonwealth until the next trial.”
What Was Lindsay Clancy Accused Of?
Lindsay’s murder trial centered on the harrowing events of Jan. 24, 2023: the day she acknowledges she killed her and Patrick’s kids—5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan—in their Duxbury, Mass., home.
As Patrick testified, that evening, Lindsay requested that he drive to a local CVS pharmacy to pick up medication, then to a nearby restaurant to grab takeout for dinner. When he returned home, he found her lying in the backyard after jumping out a second-story window in a suicide attempt. In their basement, he discovered Cora, Dawson and Callan strangled with exercise bands, and all three passed away from the attack.
In their opening statement, the prosecution argued that during the time frame that Patrick was out of the house, Lindsay executed the children’s killings with “deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity and cruelty.”
“This was not a woman in the throes of psychosis on Jan. 24, 2023,” Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham told jurors. “This was a woman who acted intentionally, rationally and swiftly to accomplish a very specific goal: to kill.”
“This was a woman who no longer liked the life she thought she wanted,” she added. “It was getting harder and harder to control, and when she saw the opportunity to escape, she made the selfish choice to take it, and to take Cora, Dawson and Callan first before attempting to take her own life.”
What Was Lindsay Clancy’s Defense?
Lindsay’s defense attorney Kevin Reddington did not dispute she killed the children, but he argued that her actions were driven by postpartum psychosis, not malice, and that she was therefore unable to understand the wrongfulness of them.
“This is a woman that was suffering from psychosis at the time that she went down to that basement,” he told jurors during his opening statement. “She had no motive. She loved her children. She intended to kill herself. She didn’t fake that.”