By Nate Raymond
BOSTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Lindsay Clancy's lawyer on Thursday asked the judge who oversaw the Massachusetts woman's murder trial to declare her not guilty of murder by reason of insanity, saying prosecutors had failed to prove that, despite being mentally ill, she knew killing her three young children would be wrong.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington made the request to Judge William Sullivan six days after the trial ended in a deadlock, and as a fourth member of the 12-member jury
went public to describe how a single juror had prevented the panel from reaching a unanimous verdict.
The jury in Plymouth, Massachusetts deliberated for seven days before Sullivan on Friday declared a mistrial, following repeated reports by the jury that it was deadlocked.
Prosecutors have yet to say if they plan to retry Clancy. But Reddington argued that Sullivan should decide the matter himself, saying prosecutors during the six-week trial did not present evidence that would allow a jury to find her guilty on the first-degree murder charges she faces.
Reddington argued that even the prosecution's expert witnesses agreed Clancy suffered from a serious mental illness at the time, and he said the evidence at most showed that she retained the ability to perform familiar tasks, not that she could appreciate the wrongfulness of her actions.
"No rational jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that she had no mental disease or defense when the Commonwealth's own proof established that she did," Reddington wrote in the motion, referring to the prosecution.
He asked the judge to hear arguments on his motion during a hearing scheduled for September 29. A spokesperson for Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz did not respond to a request for comment.
Clancy, 36, has admitted to strangling her three children with exercise bands on January 24, 2023, in the basement of their home in the Boston suburb of Duxbury. She then cut herself with a knife and jumped from a second-story window in an attempt to end her own life that left her paralyzed.
Reddington at trial sought to convince jurors she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, known in Massachusetts as lack of criminal responsibility, saying she suffered from postpartum psychosis when she killed Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and 8-month-old Callan.
In his motion, Reddington said that 11 of the 12 jurors had been prepared to find her not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility but could not return a verdict due to a holdout who despite acknowledging having reasonable doubt would not agree to find her not guilty.
One of the jurors, Nick Dargie, said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" that aired on Thursday that the holdout juror, who has not been publicly identified, often "wouldn't engage" with other members of the jury.
"I think if they tried the trial again the way they did, I think nine times out of 10, I think a jury would come back with not guilty by reason of insanity," he said. "No doubt in my mind."
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
