Lindsay Clancy’s attorney filed a motion Thursday asking the Massachusetts judge to find the mother accused of killing her three children not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility after the judge declared a mistrial.
In his filing, attorney Kevin Reddington argues that the commonwealth and defense’s expert witnesses agreed that Clancy suffered from a severe mental illness and that the prosecution did not prove Clancy had the capacity to know what she was doing was wrong.
William Sullivan, who was overseeing the murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court, declared a mistrial after the 12-member jury could not reach a consensus over whether Clancy was in her right mind or experiencing psychosis when she allegedly killed her three children due to one holdout juror.
Reddington’s first argument explains that all six forensic experts, three called by each side, all said Clancy was suffering from serious mental illness on Jan. 24, 2023, only varying by what type of illness.
“The treating clinicians who saw Ms. Clancy in the weeks before January 24 testified that she presented with postpartum depression and anxiety and that they did not observe psychosis; that testimony bears on which illness she had, not on whether she had one, and depression and anxiety of the severity that led to psychiatric admission are themselves a mental disease or defect,” Reddington said. “No rational jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that she had no mental disease or defect when the Commonwealth’s own proof established that she did.”
Because the commonwealth presented witnesses who testified to Clancy’s mental illness, Reddington then argued that their case depended on proving the defendant was aware of the wrongfulness of her actions.
The prosecution presented witnesses who said Clancy was in a sane state of mind because she was able to perform a series of tasks on the day of the killings, which Reddington argued does not prove sanity.
“Taken at their strongest, these show that Ms. Clancy could perform familiar tasks and act in sequence. They do not show that she could appreciate wrongfulness or conform her conduct to the law,” he said. “That is the element.”
At the end of the filing, Reddington addresses the matter of the holdout juror, who admitted to having reasonable doubt but maintained that Clancy was guilty, while noting 11 of the 12 jurors found the prosecution failed to prove Clancy was criminally responsible.
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“A hung jury is not a verdict; jeopardy does not terminate on a hung jury, and a mistrial ordinarily permits retrial,” Reddington said.
Reddington requested Sullivan enter a finding of not guilty and that the motion be heard at a hearing Sept. 29.