A judge declared a mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial
Clancy’s attorney argued that she was suffering from a rare condition called postpartum psychosis when she strangled her three children, including her youngest, who was just 8 months old, before attempting to take her own life. Prosecutors said Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, deliberately strangled her three children, 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan, with exercise bands on January 24, 2023. Because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness associated with the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that can follow childbirth, clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, did not dispute that she killed the children but argued that she should not be held criminally responsible.
They said she arranged for her husband to leave the house by asking him to pick up medicine for one of the children and dinner for the family. They highlighted that although Clancy said she heard a male voice commanding her to kill the children, she had never told her mental health providers that she was hearing voices before the killings. The court, however, denied the emergency appeal seeking to prevent the judge from declaring a mistrial. Prosecutors acknowledged that Clancy suffered from severe mental illness but argued that she was still able to understand and control her actions.
A judge declared a mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial on Friday after jurors said they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on whether she was criminally responsible for the deaths of her three young children. The deliberations took a dramatic turn late in the week when the judge said he would declare a mistrial on Friday, but then changed course and gave Clancy’s defense attorney an opportunity to appeal to Massachusetts’ top court.