Lindsay Clancy's lawyer asks judge to find her not guilty of murder following mistrial

Defence attorney says judge should decide outcome after sole juror held out against not guilty verdict

WARNING: This article contains details about violence against children and attempted suicide.

Lindsay Clancy's lawyer on Thursday asked the judge who oversaw the Massachusetts woman's murder trial to declare her not guilty 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.

Defence 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, Mass., deliberated for seven days before Sullivan declared a mistrial on Aug. 4, 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 did not present evidence during the ⁠six-week trial ⁠that would allow a jury to find Clancy guilty ‌of the first-degree murder charges she faces.

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Reddington argued that even the prosecution's expert witnesses agreed Clancy suffered from a serious mental illness at the time. He said the evidence at most showed that she retained the ability to perform familiar tasks, but 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 defence 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 Sept. 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 Jan. 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-storey window, leaving her paralyzed.

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Holdout 'wouldn't engage' with other members: juror

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 eight-month-old Callan.

In his motion, Reddington said 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 single juror who, despite acknowledging having reasonable doubt, would not agree to find Clancy ⁠not guilty.

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One of the jurors, Nick Dargie, said in an interview with ABC's Good Morning America that aired 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," Dargie ‌said. "No doubt in my mind."

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