Lindsay Clancy: Trial date set as defense reveals the mother accused of murdering her kids will enter an insanity plea
Lawyers for Lindsay Clancy, a Massachusetts mother accused of murdering her three children in January 2023 before trying to commit suicide, have filed a notice the court of their defense strategy for the upcoming trial, which now has a start date.
WCVB reported on Dec. 16, 2024 that a request for trial date and a “Defendant's Notice of lack of criminal responsibility” were filed in the Plymouth County Superior Court's online docket.
“Now comes the defendant, Lindsay Clancy, in the above captioned matter pursuant to Rule 14(b)(B) that statements of the defendant as to her mental condition will be relied upon by defendant's expert witnesses and the defendant does intend to present to the Court a defense of lack of criminal responsibility,” the notice says.
Kevin Reddington, one of Clancy’s attorney’s, stated in the trial date request notice that DNA testing results and expert reports are still pending, but he expects the defense team will be ready for trial for September 2025, according to NBC Boston.
On Dec. 18, 2024, WCVB announced that initially, the trial had been scheduled for Dec. 1, 2025, but NBC added it has since been delayed until Jan. 5, 2026. Both defense and prosecution agreed to this so the trial could avoid being delayed over the holidays.
NBC also reports that Clancy has since been ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation by an expert hired by the prosecution in light of the defense’s wish to pursue an insanity plea.
Was Lindsay Clancy an over-medicated mother or did she allegedly premeditate the murders of her children?
Content warning: descriptions of child murders and post-partum psychosis. Not all mothers with postpartum harm their children.
Patrick Clancy returned to his Duxbury, Massachusetts home on Jan. 24, 2023 to an unfathomable scene, and he didn’t even know the worst of it when he called 911 to report his wife had attempted suicide by jumping out of the top window of their home.
The 34-year-old husband and father of three had left home 25 minutes earlier to get takeout food and stop at a pharmacy. According to warrants, when he got home, the house was quiet. He entered the home and went upstairs to his bedroom only to find the bedroom door was locked. When he got into the room, he saw blood and that the window was open. He ran downstairs to go outside, where he found Lindsay on the ground. The warrant notes it appeared she had slit her wrists and possibly her neck. Patrick called 911.
After police arrived, Patrick went down into the basement and found his three children down there: five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson, and seven-month-old Callen. He found Cora and Callen in the main living room, then located Dawson in his office. According to the warrants, all three children had exercise bands around their necks.
Patrick told police he had been home all day until he had gone to pick up the food and stop at the CVS, the warrant states. He added that his wife had been having suicidal thoughts and thoughts of harming the children in December. She reached out to her psychiatrist and admitted herself to McClean Hospital from Jan. 1 to Jan. 5, 2023.
Patrick said he and Lindsay had an “amazing marriage” and “got along great,” according to the warrant.
Lindsay survived the alleged suicide attempt, and has been hospitalized since. Reddington has told media that she is permanently paralyzed from the waist down. She previously worked as a labor and delivery nurse at the Massachusetts General Hospital, as confirmed by CBS, and shared her postpartum depression struggles on social media in the months leading up to Jan. 24, 2023 events.
Little Callen held on for a few days in the hospital, but succumbed to his traumatic injuries on Jan. 27, 2023.
In a statement, Patrick said “the shock and pain is excruciating and relentless,” but added that he forgave his wife.
“I took so much pride in being Lindsay’s husband and a dad to Cora, Dawson, and Callan. I always reminded myself that each day with them was a new gift,” he adds.
In an Oct. 2024 New Yorker article, Patrick told the reporter:
“I wasn’t married to a monster—I was married to someone who got sick.”
Kevin Reddington maintains that Lindsay was a mother suffering from postpartum psychosis and more so, that she was heavily over-medicated by doctors that only made her mental problems worse. CBS previously reported that he claimed she was prescribed up to 12 medications for her condition.
“This family was on the road to hell and unfortunately is not coming back,” Reddington said.
“Her husband actually went to the doctor the week before to ask for help and said you're turning her into a zombie,” he added. “It was just a brutal, brutal existence that they were living. Her parents were aware of this, they were trying to help out the husband as well.”
Reddington told Fox News that he was hiring a toxicologist to review the dosages of the medications, the number of doses, and how the medications could have interacted with each other. He said the prescriptions were “over the top, absolutely over the top.”
Prosecutors, however, at the Feb. 7, 2023 arraignment hearing claimed evidence shows she premeditated having those 20 minutes of solitude with which to act, CBS says. She allegedly asked Patrick to pick up prescriptions for the kids at CVS Pharmacy and a food order from ThreeV restaurant in Plymouth. Prosecutors further allege that she researched how long the trip would take to confirm how long she would be alone with the children.
“She planned these murders, gave herself the time and privacy to commit these murders, and then she strangled each child in the place where they should have felt the safest – at home with their mom,” said Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague.
At the arraignment hearing, prosecutors claimed that Lindsay called Patrick on Feb. 5, leaving him a voicemail telling him she loved him, CBS says. The next day, she called again. When Patrick answered, Lindsay allegedly confessed that “she heard a voice and had ‘a moment’ of psychosis” in the form of a man’s voice instructing her to kill the kids and herself because it “was her last chance.”
While hospitalized following the childrens’ deaths, Lindsay allegedly wrote on a white board asking if she needed an attorney, which the prosecution claims is evidence she knew what she had done, CBS says.
Under Massachusetts law, the burden of proof that Lindsay was criminally responsible for the alleged murders falls on the prosecution. The defense needs to merely make the argument that the defendant wasn’t guilty by reason of insanity. Lindsay pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, three counts of strangulation, and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
She remains in police custody at Tewksbury State Hospital.
Sources
NBC Boston
WCVB
https://www.wcvb.com/article/lindsay-clancy-hearing-dec-18-2024/63225946
https://www.wcvb.com/article/lindsay-clancy-notice-of-lack-of-criminal-responsibility/63188643