Judge William Sullivan, who drew national attention earlier this month when he declared a mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy murder case, also oversaw another high-profile child-killing trial that a retired Massachusetts judge says could unfold very differently the second time around.

Last month, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court threw out the murder conviction of Brockton mother Latarsha Sanders. The court found that jurors had been improperly denied access to psychiatric records critical to her insanity defense and ordered a new trial.

“They ordered a new trial which will fundamentally change the way the case is going to be tried,” retired Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Jack Lu told News Media.

Sullivan presided over Sanders’ 2022 trial and later sentenced her to two concurrent life terms without the possibility of parole. He has since returned to the national spotlight through the closely watched Clancy trial, which ended in a mistrial after jurors could not reach a verdict on whether Clancy was criminally responsible for killing her three children. As in the Sanders case, Clancy admitted killing her children but maintained that mental illness left her without criminal responsibility.

“There is no doubt the defendant committed these incomprehensible crimes,” Justice David Gaziano wrote for the unanimous court in Sanders’ case. “The sole issue before a Superior Court jury was whether she lacked criminal responsibility.”

The justices ruled that Sanders deserved a new trial because the jury did not see medical records detailing her mental health diagnoses and treatment. Those documents were relevant to the only question contested at trial: whether she lacked criminal responsibility.

Lu said the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision amounts to far more than a routine order for a retrial.

“Thousands of pages of mental health records will be admitted … and the jury’s gonna get it all,” he said.

Lu cautioned against judging Sullivan’s decision with the benefit of hindsight.

“The trial judge did an excellent job … but now I’m a great Monday morning quarterback just like everybody else,” Lu said, explaining that the evidentiary issue was unusually difficult before the SJC clarified the law.

Sanders admitted killing her sons, 8-year-old Edson “Marlon” Brito and 5-year-old La’Son Brito, but argued she was legally insane at the time of the attacks.

Her attorneys contended she was suffering from severe mental illness and psychosis, while prosecutors argued she appreciated the wrongfulness of her actions despite bizarre statements she made before and after the killings.

According to evidence summarized by the Supreme Judicial Court, Sanders had become consumed by conspiracy theories involving the Illuminati and expressed fears about voodoo before the killings.

After the deaths, investigators said she gave police multiple conflicting accounts before eventually telling detectives the stabbings were part of a “ritual” tied to voodoo and the Illuminati.

At trial, Sanders’ defense called a clinical neuropsychologist who testified she was “grossly psychotic” at the time of the killings and suffered from a schizophrenia-spectrum disorder.

The expert based that opinion in part on thousands of pages of psychiatric treatment records from prison and a state psychiatric hospital.

Those are the records Lu said a future jury would likely hear if prosecutors pursue another trial.

The Supreme Judicial Court said that was an error, concluding the excluded records documented repeated observations of paranoia, hallucinations, delusional thinking and schizophrenia-spectrum diagnoses that formed the medical foundation of Sanders’ defense.

“We hold that the exclusion of the MCI-Framingham and WRCH medical records documenting the defendant’s post-arrest diagnoses or treatment of mental illness … impermissibly stripped the sole defense ‘of the medical foundation that supported it,'” the court wrote. “The defendant is entitled to a new trial.”

Lu said the opinion should not be interpreted as a determination that Sanders was legally insane or wrongly convicted. Instead, he described it as the resolution of a difficult evidentiary question that changes what evidence jurors would be permitted to consider if the case is retried.

During oral arguments before the Supreme Judicial Court, Sanders’ attorney, Robert Shaw, argued the trial judge’s exclusion of medical evidence deprived his client of “a meaningful opportunity to present a complete defense,” FOX 25 in Boston reported.

Assistant Plymouth County District Attorney Melissa Johnson countered that Sanders showed no documented psychotic behavior for months after the killings and that the records were properly excluded, the station reported.

The justices also addressed two issues that would likely shape any future trial.

First, they said prosecutors could refer to Sanders describing herself as “evil” because the statements were relevant to whether she appreciated the moral wrongfulness of her actions, so long as the argument remained tied to that legal issue rather than serving as a personal attack.

However, the court found prosecutors improperly suggested Sanders may have borrowed elements of her story from episodes of “Law & Order: SVU,” ruling there was no evidence supporting that theory.

The ruling vacates Sanders’ convictions and sends the case back to Plymouth Superior Court for a new trial.

An overturned conviction does not clear Sanders of the charges, Lu said.

“It just means you have to do it all over again,” he said.

News Media has reached out to Sullivan, Sanders’ attorney and the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office for comment.

For generations of travelers, arriving at Washington Dulles International Airport has meant boarding one of its most recognizable — and unconventional — transportation options: giant bus-like “people movers” that shuttle passengers between the main terminal and several concourses.

Those signature vehicles may soon disappear, a prospect that has won strong support from United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby.

“I hate them. Terrible,” Kirby said of the mobile lounges during an interview this week with Washington Post Live.

The mobile lounges have been synonymous with Dulles since the Virginia airport opened in 1962. They were originally intended to move passengers efficiently across the vast airport grounds, sparing them lengthy walks between the terminal and their aircraft.

More than 60 years later, however, the system is widely seen as a relic of another era. Dulles is preparing to phase out the mobile lounges in favor of a larger rail network, new tunnels, moving walkways and expanded pedestrian routes.

The upgrades are part of an ambitious redevelopment plan for the airport, with nearly $20 billion in construction anticipated over the next 15 years.

Although Kirby has made clear he will not mourn the people movers, he supports the broader modernization effort. He said he believes the completed Dulles overhaul could create the best airport in the United States.

“This is the greatest country on earth, and the airport should help with that,” Kirby said.

President Donald Trump unveiled the planned Dulles transformation in July, framing it as part of a broader effort to reshape Washington and modernize major infrastructure across the nation’s capital region.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has approved an additional $15.5 billion for its capital construction program at Dulles, bringing the airport’s forward-looking construction budget to $19.9 billion over 15 years.

The Airports Authority says the program will be primarily financed through bonds and airport-generated revenue rather than designated taxpayer funding.

For travelers, one of the biggest changes will be the eventual retirement of the people movers, which have become one of Dulles’ most distinctive features.

Instead, the airport plans to extend its AeroTrain system, build a central tunnel connecting concourses and add more pedestrian connections and moving walkways.

The modernization will also replace the existing C and D concourses, while expanding and renovating other parts of the airport as passenger numbers continue to grow.

More than five million square feet of new or renovated space is planned, while the airport’s iconic original terminal, designed by famed architect Eero Saarinen, will be preserved.

The project is being carried out in phases, meaning travelers should not expect the people movers to disappear overnight.

Construction of the tunnels that will eventually replace them is expected to begin in early 2029, with that portion of the project scheduled for completion in 2034.

The wider transformation will take considerably longer, with some major concourse construction not expected to begin until the late 2030s.

The scale of the project is significant because Dulles is already a major international gateway, serving roughly 29 million passengers over the past year, according to the Airports Authority.

Trump has taken a particularly close interest in the redesign, personally reviewing more than 30 proposals before the July announcement.

Kirby was present at the White House event and acknowledged the president’s involvement when asked about the project.

‘The president was interested in it,’ Kirby said, noting that although Dulles is not really a federal government operation, Trump had taken a strong interest in its future.

Travelers have plenty of opinions about the people movers, too, with reactions ranging from relief at their planned retirement to passengers arguing that the shuttles can actually be quicker than the train for certain journeys.

One Reddit commenter argued that the people movers are still faster for reaching the C and D gates than taking the AeroTrain, while another said the airport’s current setup was the result of earlier planning decisions involving the location of the train station.

Others defended the mobile lounges, with one traveler calling them ‘fine’ and saying they can be faster than the trains when traveling to certain gates.

But international travelers have complained about crowded queues for the vehicles, while another Reddit user described walking between concourses as a lengthy alternative that left them exhausted and covered in sweat.

The frustration is not entirely new: the mobile lounges have long been criticized for being cramped and awkward, and one was involved in a crash at a concourse dock last year that sent at least 18 people to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the Airports Authority.

For United, which has a major presence at Dulles, the transformation could have an especially noticeable impact, with the airline also set to receive additional lounge space, including plans for a large United Polaris Lounge.

The airline has already found itself in the middle of another Trump-related airport controversy this year after an internal memo appeared to suggest passengers unhappy with the renaming of Palm Beach International Airport could switch to nearby airports for no additional fare.

United later said the guidance was inaccurate, with a spokesperson telling the Daily Mail that the message was ‘poorly worded and not accurate.’

That episode involved a completely different airport and policy, but it adds to an unusual year for United as the airline navigates a series of changes involving airports and the Trump administration.

At Dulles, however, Kirby’s message is much simpler: he may hate the people movers, but he believes the airport that replaces them could finally give Washington the world-class gateway he thinks the capital deserves.