Timothy Cruz, the prosecutor who will decide whether to retry Lindsay Clancy in the 2023 killings of her three children, could have chosen a more lenient path.
He brought first-degree murder charges in a trial that ended Friday with a hung jury. Options included lesser charges or accepting an insanity defense.
But Mr. Cruz, the Plymouth County district attorney prosecuting the Clancy case, went with the most conservative choice, according to lawyers and observers, an approach he has taken for more than two decades as the lead prosecutor in a working-class county.
After the judge declared a mistrial on Friday, Mr. Cruz said he had not yet made a decision about whether to retry the case against Ms. Clancy, dismissing the suggestion that the case was about mental health issues and saying the trial was “about getting justice for those three little babies.”
Mr. Cruz has been uncompromising. During the trial, his office described Ms. Clancy as “selfish” and “calculated,” arguing that she had plotted to get her then-husband out of the house before choking the children.
“Our priority has always been to fight for Cora, for Dawson and for Callan,” Mr. Cruz said on Friday.
Ms. Clancy pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, with her lawyers arguing she was suffering from postpartum psychosis. But prosecutors disputed that view.
Robert F. Shaw, a criminal defense lawyer, said Mr. Cruz’s office “reflexively pursues the harshest charges.”
Mr. Cruz has served as Plymouth County district attorney since 2001. He is a former president of the National District Attorneys Association, where he currently serves as chairman. Mr. Cruz, a Republican, is up for re-election in November but is uncontested.
Jennifer Webb-McRae, the president of the association, said in a statement that Mr. Cruz “represents the very best of what it means to be a prosecutor,” adding that he “understands that this job is more than trying cases, it’s about building trust with the community, working collaboratively with law enforcement, and never losing sight of the people affected by crime.”
Mr. Cruz recently prosecuted another case with parallels to the Clancy case. In that case, Latarsha Sanders, 51, was convicted in 2022 for stabbing two of her children. Like Ms. Clancy, Ms. Sanders pleaded not guilty.
Earlier this month Mr. Cruz faced a setback. The state’s Supreme Judicial Court ordered a retrial, after lawyers for Ms. Sanders argued that the defense should have been able to introduce medical records that documented her mental illness.
The same judge presided over both cases.
Mr. Cruz’s other high-profile cases include solving two decades-old cold cases. Mr. Cruz has made targeting gang and organized crime a priority.
He has also supported the commutation of a first-degree murder sentence for a man who was an accomplice in a robbery that ended in murder.
Mark Arsenault contributed reporting.
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