A Massachusetts judge has cleared the path for a second trial of Lindsay Clancy, who is accused of killing her three children in 2023. Judge William Sullivan rejected her attorneys’ request to dismiss the case, stating that a retrial would not violate double‑jeopardy protections.
On 4 September, Sullivan declared a mistrial after a jury could not reach a unanimous verdict because one juror refused to accept the evidence. The judge has set a hearing for 16 November to decide when the new trial will take place, with a potential start date in March.
Clancy’s initial trial ended with the jury acknowledging that she strangled her five‑year‑old daughter Cora, her three‑year‑old son Dawson, and her eight‑month‑old son Callan using exercise bands on 24 January 2023 in the basement of their Duxbury home. After the murders, she reportedly cut herself with a knife and jumped from a second‑story window, leaving her paralyzed.
Her defense argued that postpartum psychosis should have led to a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity—known in Massachusetts as lack of criminal responsibility—which would have sent her to a state psychiatric hospital for regular court review. Some jurors later said they would have accepted that verdict if not for the holdout juror.
Prosecutors, led by Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz, contended that Sullivan handled the jury impasse appropriately and that questioning the holdout could have risked improper interference with deliberations.
Source: The Guardian World
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