PLYMOUTH, MA − Lindsay Clancy's case returns to a Massachusetts courtroom Tuesday for a consequential hearing that will shed light on the next steps in the case.
The court date follows a high-profile mistrial in early September and a flurry of legal maneuverings by her defense team. Clancy is accused of killing her three young children.
Prosecutors have not yet said whether they intend to retry Clancy for first-degree murder, lower the charges or drop the case altogether. Meanwhile, Clancy's defense team is working to prevent a retrial and launch an investigation into the holdout juror.
Prosecutors alleged Clancy, 36, deliberately sent her husband out on errands and then strangled her three children - Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months - with
exercise bands in the basement of their Duxbury, Massachusetts home while he was gone. Clancy's attorney Kevin Reddington did not deny that she killed her children in January 2023, but argued she can't be held criminally responsible, Massachusetts' version of the insanity defense, because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings.
After more than 38 hours of deliberations, the jury remained deadlocked 11 to 1, and Clancy's closely watched triple murder trial ended with a mistrial on Sept. 4. Judge William Sullivan ordered both sides to return to court at 9 a.m. local time on Sept. 29 for a status and trial assignment hearing.
Defense motions before the court
Following the mistrial, Clancy's defense team filed three motions: one calling for "a required finding of not guilty," one calling for the murder charges to be dismissed altogether, citing double jeopardy concerns and another seeking more information about the holdout juror in the case.
Reddington filed a renewed motion asking the court to find Clancy not guilty on Sept. 10, according to court records, arguing that the prosecution's evidence did not sufficiently prove Clancy understood what she did was wrong despite her serious mental illness. This motion has been denied once by Judge William Sullivan.
On Sept. 21, Clancy's defense team filed another motion arguing the charges against her should be dismissed because the court failed to investigate the message from the jury that one juror wasn't following the judge's instructions on reasonable doubt during deliberations. "Accordingly, any successive trial would constitute a violation of Ms. Clancy's Double Jeopardy rights," the motion said.
Another motion filed by Reddington requested the holdout juror's phone, phone records and confidential questionnaire, among other records. Reddington also asked the court to question the juror about the truthfulness of the questionnaire and his answers during voir dire, a "sworn assurance" from Sept. 3, and the use of a cell phone or receipt of outside information during deliberations.
Will prosecutors retry Lindsay Clancy for murder?
Plymouth District Attorney Tim Cruz has not yet said whether he intends to retry Clancy in front of a new jury, but legal observers and Clancy's defense lawyer have said it's unlikely he'll drop the case. After the mistrial was declared on Sept. 4, Cruz told reportershe would not make a decision about a retrial that day, but said the first-degree murder charges "were warranted and appropriate in these circumstances."
"The facts are Lindsay Clancy killed her three children and the evidence suggested to us that she was in control of her actions when she committed those homicides," he said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lindsay Clancy murder case back in court. Latest updates on hearing
