A judge on Thursday denied a request from Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer to step in and find the Massachusetts mother not guilty of killing her three children, but several motions remain on the table for a crucial November hearing.
A rational juror could reasonably have found Ms. Clancy, 36, guilty of the murder of her three children based on the evidence presented, the judge, William Sullivan, wrote on Thursday.
Judge Sullivan rejected the lawyer’s new arguments that the prosecution failed to present enough evidence that Ms. Clancy killed her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — or that she was criminally responsible.
At a hearing on Tuesday in Plymouth, Mass., the defense lawyer, Kevin Reddington, criticized the police investigation and said that prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to show that Ms. Clancy had killed her three children.
It was a shift from Mr. Reddington’s position at Ms. Clancy’s trial, which ended in an 11-1 deadlock, with one juror favoring her conviction. During the trial this summer, Mr. Reddington put on an insanity defense, saying that Ms. Clancy had suffered such severe postpartum mental illness that she could not be held criminally responsible for the killings.
A prosecutor, Shanan Buckingham, said during this week’s hearing that the prosecution had shown the jury sufficient evidence to convict Ms. Clancy, and that it was “laughable” for Mr. Reddington to now suggest there was no proof that she killed her children.
The authorities have said Ms. Clancy strangled her three children with exercise bands in January 2023 before she attempted to kill herself. Her husband, Patrick Clancy, returned from picking up the family’s dinner and found her on the ground, having cut herself and jumped from a second-floor window. A 911 call recording captured his screams as he found his children in the basement with the bands tied around their necks.
Judge Sullivan has set a Nov. 2 hearing to discuss a possible retrial for Ms. Clancy, who is being held at a psychiatric hospital. The Plymouth County district attorney, Timothy Cruz, has not said whether prosecutors will seek to retry her.
At the November hearing, Judge Sullivan is also expected to address a motion from Mr. Reddington to investigate the lone juror who voted to convict Ms. Clancy, as well as the defense motion to dismiss the case and a request from prosecutors to limit what lawyers involved in the case can say publicly.
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