Latest issues raised in Lindsay Clancy case could push back next year’s trial
Several issues were raised during Tuesday's hearing for Lindsay Clancy — including delays in medical reports — that could push back her trial date, slated for February 9, 2026.
The defense attorney for Clancy acknowledged that he's been "somewhat delayed" in getting Plymouth County prosecutors all the medical records that are needed before prosecutors can set up a date for their experts to interview and examine Clancy, the mother charged with the killing of her three children in January 2023.
Clancy, 35, has pleaded not guilty to the three counts of murder and three counts of strangulation in connection with the deaths of her children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 7-month-old Callan.
She is currently hospitalized at Tewksbury Hospital, paralyzed and wheelchair-bound, her attorney Kevin Reddington said on Tuesday. She is pursuing a lack of criminal responsibility defense, which is commonly known as the insanity defense.
The hearing, held over Zoom, revealed that several issues remain outstanding, many of which are expected to be addressed at a hearing in November.
Clancy appeared virtually from the hospital, her dark hair down and wearing a grey sweatshirt.
Plymouth Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said prosecutors' experts would likely not be able to evaluate Clancy until November.
Judge William Sullivan sounded hesitant to move the trial date, but said he would revisit scheduling discussions in a couple of months.
"That date has been there for quite a while, so I'm really reluctant to move that trial date," Sullivan said.
'Awful lot of work that has to be done,' defense says
There are several motions that Reddington said he plans to file before the next hearing, including a motion for a change of venue, a request for the jury list in advance and a potential motion to suppress a statement by Clancy while she was at the hospital.
"There is one statement that may be subject to a motion to suppress on voluntariness as far as knowing, intelligent, or knowing exactly what she's saying at the time she is alleged to have said it while in the hospital on medication," Reddington said. "I'm still looking into that."
He didn't say which specific statement.
Reddington also said he is going to request that the court consider a "bifurcation," or separation, as far as criminal responsibility as opposed to criminal liability.
This would allow an "initial phase" of the case about what happened during the incident and then a separate phase about potential criminal responsibility, which would delve into how "a mental disease or defect" might have played a role in the incident, according to Reddington.
"We all know that there will be videos, there will be photographs, there will be autopsies, there will be all sorts of horrific evidence that the government will present," Reddington said. "And I don't suggest for one minute that they will be doing that to try to take advantage of the emotion of the case.
It's just the nature of the beast, and it's very difficult to defend on that type of situation," Reddington said.
The defense attorney also said he is planning on asking the court to consider allowing Clancy some "hybrid security" and a location other than Tewksbury Hospital for her to stay at during the trial. He cited the long ride from the hospital to Plymouth as a concern.
"There's still obviously an awful lot of work that has to be done, I imagine, by both of us," Reddington said in reference to Sprague.
What to know about the Clancy case
In the days after the killings, Clancy's attorney said at her arraignment that she suffered from severe mental illness at the time, dealt with complications from overmedication and grappled with postpartum depression — and potentially postpartum psychosis.
Her husband, Patrick Clancy, has since moved to Manhattan and told The New Yorker that he hoped to root out "lies and misinformation" surrounding Clancy's case.
"I wasn't married to a monster — I was married to someone who got sick," Patrick Clancy said in an article published in October 2024.
In a GoFundMe started by Patrick Clancy only days after the children died, he wrote, "The real Lindsay was generously loving and caring … All I wish for her now is that she can somehow find peace."
The fundraiser raised more than $1 million.
Clancy's case renewed attention surrounding perinatal and postpartum mood and anxiety disorders, also known as PMADs. One of the disorders, postpartum psychosis — which Clancy's defense attorney has referenced — is rare and affects one or two in a thousand women.
At Clancy's arraignment, Sprague argued that the Duxbury mother deliberately sent her husband out to pick up medicine and take-out food on Jan. 24, 2023, and then strangled her children with exercise bands.
Clancy then made "superficial" cuts to her wrists and jumped out of a second-floor window in an attempted suicide, according to prosecutors.
Reddington denied the characterization of a scheming mother and described her mental health struggles before the killings and how she failed to receive adequate treatment.
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