What to Know
On January 24, 2023, nurse Lindsay Clancy allegedly strangled her 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan with exercise bands. She then attempted suicide by jumping from a second-story window in the family’s Duxbury, Massachusetts home.
Her husband, Patrick Clancy, came home from picking up dinner to find his entire life shattered. Lindsay Clancy’s trial will begin on July 20, 2026, and her husband is expected to testify about the day that changed everything.
Lindsay Clancy pleaded not guilty.
Lindsay Clancy’s jump from the window left her paralyzed from the waist down. She uses a wheelchair and has resided at Tewksbury State Hospital in state custody. Her attorney, Kevin Reddington, plans to pursue an insanity defense due to mental illness following Callum’s birth, per Boston.com.
“It’s so easy for us as a society to say, in a troubling case like this, ‘Oh my god, she’s guilty. Throw away the key, put her in jail, and just be done with it,’” Reddington shared in a pretrial hearing on July 13. “Because it makes everybody feel better; it’s a feel-good reaction that OK, somebody has been punished because of doing a very bad thing.”
Lindsay Clancy reportedly has support from multiple mothers.
People reported Patrick Clancy filed a wrongful death lawsuit following his children’s deaths, alleging medical professionals mishandled her mental health. According to court documents obtained by the outlet, Lindsay Clancy “started hearing a compelling and unrecognizable singular male voice that told her ‘this is your last chance’ and that she had to ‘take them’ with [her].”
Reddington shared in court that multiple women approached him to share their own postpartum mental health stories in support of Lindsay Clancy’s defense.
“A woman who has suffered and has put up with this affliction should be able to testify and say, probably in an emotionally charged fashion, very credibly, ‘I too have heard these command voices. I too acted on the command voices,’” Reddington said.
A judge denied Reddington’s request for other mothers to testify.
Following the pretrial hearing, People obtained a witness list that included Patrick Clancy. He will reportedly testify on his wife’s behalf.
Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague urged Judge William Sullivan not to allow the witnesses arguing “women who suffered from postpartum depression and psychosis who did not kill their children, who locked themselves in a room to keep themselves from harming their children, who got in a car and drove away so they didn’t harm their children,” Sprague continued. “And so then it becomes a trial within a trial.”
The judge ultimately denied the defense’s request to have other mothers speak in defense of Lindsay Clancy.
Jury selection begins on July 20.
NBC Boston reported jury selection for Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial will begin on July 20. Due to the high-profile nature of the case, jury selection could take longer than usual. Sullivan will impanel a total of 18 jurors instead of the typical 16. The jury will consist of 12 regular jurors and six alternates.
“With all the cases I’ve had, I’ve never had 18 jurors,” Reddington said. “It’s always been 16, but Judge Sullivan obviously recognizes the unusual nature of this case.”
Lindsay Clancy’s trial is expected to take four to six weeks.
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