DUXBURY, Mass. — Until now, Lindsay Clancy has only been seen in video streams from Tewksbury State Hospital, where she’s been held since the murders of her three young children and a suicide attempt that left her paralyzed in January 2023.
But in an emergency hearing on Tuesday, attorneys for Clancy sought a ruling on how she will be transported to court each day during her upcoming murder trial.
Her lawyers argued she should be driven to court in an ambulance. The Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office, however, says they plan to bring her to court in a wheelchair-accessible van.
Boston defense attorney Peter Elikann told Boston 25 that, given Clancy’s physical and mental health needs, he’s not surprised by the request.
“It is not an unreasonable request that she be taken in an ambulance every day, because, first of all, she’s not a flight risk. She’s not going to escape, and that’s a crucial thing,” Elikann said.
Clancy is charged with three counts of murder and strangulation in the deaths of her 5-year-old daughter, Cora, her 3-year-old son, Dawson, and her 7-month-old baby, Callan. She has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors say Clancy used exercise bands to strangleher kids before jumping out of a second-floor window in a suicide attempt at her Summer Street home in Duxbury on the evening of Jan. 24, 2023.
When the case goes to trial, Clancy’s lawyers plan to argue that overmedication and post-partum mental illness were behind the murders.
“Certainly, this defendant, Lindsay Clancy, is going to need more support than a typical defendant who has brought in a sheriff’s van in handcuffs and shackles,” Boston attorney Elyse Hershon told Boston 25.
Hershon adds that the issue over Clancy’s transportation may set the tone for her trial
“She is a sympathetic defendant in this. She’s also a victim of mental health issues. The question is, is this premeditated murder or a result of mental health or defect, which is the legal term for it? That’s going to be the huge issue at trial.”
On Tuesday, a judge ruled that Clancy can attend Wednesday’s hearing via video link and she does not have to attend it in person.
The issue of how she will be transported for her trial has not been decided.
In November 2025, Plymouth County Superior Court Judge William F. Sullivan denied a defense motion to move Clancy’s murder trial to Boston, despite concerns over extensive media coverage. He also agreed to postpone the trial by five months to July 20, 2026. It had been scheduled for February 9.
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