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A retired Massachusetts Superior Court judge says a not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity verdict would not amount to an easy path for Lindsay Clancy, noting that “prosecution doctors” would help determine when she could be released — and may be more likely to recommend that she remain confined.
Clancy, 36, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children — Cora, Dawson and Callan, all younger than 6 — who were found strangled inside the family’s home in January 2023.
Retired Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Jack Lu told News Media that even if Clancy were found not guilty by reason of insanity, she would probably spend a substantial period of time in a mental health facility.
Lindsay Clancy and her attorney, Kevin Reddington, arrive for the third day of deliberations in her murder trial. (Greg Derr/Pool The Patriot Ledger via AP)
He said a group of mental health officials would be responsible for periodically reviewing her commitment at the facility, but noted these are people who overwhelmingly side with prosecutors and usually testify on their behalf.
The empty Plymouth Superior Court jury box during the Lindsay Clancy murder trial in Plymouth Superior Court, Plymouth, Mass., on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (Greg Derr/Pool The Patriot Ledger via AP)
“They’re viewed as an arm of the prosecution,” Lu said of the officials. “I’m going to be very frank, they kind of view this through the lens of if in doubt, lock them up…The people making release decisions have a prosecutorial mindset.”
Lu said, if Clancy is committed to a mental hospital, “I imagine she’d be committed year after year after year for some period of time.”
“If you are committed on a mental health basis because of a major criminal case in Massachusetts, it is hard to get out… It is very difficult,” he said.
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He said there is another way for Clancy to be released from a mental institution if found not guilty by reason of insanity, which would be through the courts.
“The other way she could get out is if the government kept moving to commit her and the doctors did not really decide that she should be released, and then it goes to court and then a judge would decide whether she is a danger to herself or others,” Lu said. “It could be more of a contested hearing, and if she were to win that contested hearing, that is the second way that she gets out.”
Lindsay Clancy arrived for day 3 of deliberations. (Greg Derr/Pool The Patriot Ledger via AP)
Clancy’s case has drawn parallels with Constance Fisher, a then-24-year-old Maine woman who drowned her three children in a bathtub in 1954, according to the New York Times.
She was committed to a mental hospital, and after several years, she returned home. She was accused of drowning three more children in 1967 and was sent back to the mental hospital, before she escaped and was found dead in the Kennebec River.
Callan, left, Dawson and Cora Clancy. The three children were killed at their Duxbury, Massachusetts, home in January 2023. (Lindsay Marie Clancy/Facebook)
The jury in Clancy’s case, consisting of nine women and three men, led by a female foreperson, concluded a third day of deliberations on Monday without coming to a verdict.
The jurors asked Judge William Sullivan around 4 p.m. to be dismissed for the day, and will return on Tuesday morning to continue deliberations.