PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Last Friday, Lindsay Clancy made her first appearance in a courtroom since she was charged with the murders of her 3 young children: infant son Callen, three-year-old son Dawson, and five-year-old daughter Cora.
Prosecutors allege that Clancy, who had been battling mental health issues, strangled the children with exercise bands in her Duxbury home, after sending her husband away on errands, and then jumped out of a second-floor window in an apparent effort to kill herself.
Clancy is now permanently confined to a wheelchair.
The Plymouth County DA is charging Lindsay with three counts of murder, but her lawyer claims she was not criminally responsible, saying postpartum psychosis and overmedication of powerful drugs caused the tragedy.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington is now asking for a two-phase trial: The first is to determine guilt, the second is to determine Clancy’s mental state.
“This will break some kind of ground in Massachusetts because this is an emerging issue about postpartum psychosis,” Boston defense attorney Peter Elikann told reporter Bob Ward.
He believes the two-phase trial is a good idea.
“The thrust of this trial was never going to be, did she do it, but is, is she criminally responsible or not because of some kind of mental disease or deficit?” Elikann said.
“The jury is going to have a really tough job in this one. It’s going to be hard to put emotions aside when there are child victims,” Boston attorney Elyse Hershon told Ward.
Hershon is not convinced the judge will agree to a two-phase trial, but she does believe this case will be closely watched.
“There’s a lot of issues in this case, and I think of all the cases that go forward with the not guilty by reason of insanity defense, this is, this is pretty square in the middle of that,” Hershon said.
The judge has not yet ruled on the motion for a two-phase trial, but as of now, the Lindsay Clancy trial is set to begin on July 20.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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