Lindsay Clancy's lawyer argued in court that no evidence shows she killed her three kids and demanded the murder charges be dismissed after a hung jury.
Wheelchair-bound and under suicide watch, the 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse appeared in Plymouth County Superior Court in Massachusetts on Tuesday for her first hearing since a mistrial. Her attorney, Kevin Reddington, pressed Judge William Sullivan for a required finding of not guilty, insisting the case rests on speculation rather than proof.
Reddington told the court the prosecution never produced an admission or hard evidence tying Clancy to the deaths of her children. He framed the entire prosecution as hollow and demanded the judge end it before any second trial.
Daily Mail reporting captured Reddington’s core attack on the state’s case.
"This entire case is based on speculation. Where is the admission? Where did she say that she did this?"
He kept driving the same point home.
"Where is the evidence that she did this?"
Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham called those comments “laughable.” Buckingham argued that a defendant with mental illness can still be held criminally responsible under Massachusetts law. The state must show whether a mental defect left the person unable to control their actions or conform to the law.
Judge Sullivan took the required-finding arguments under advisement and did not rule from the bench. He tabled several other motions and set a follow-up hearing for November 2. No new trial date was set.
Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months old, died inside the family home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, on January 24, 2023. Prosecutors charged Clancy with three counts of first-degree murder. The state’s account held that she strangled the children with exercise bands in the basement after sending her husband, Patrick Clancy, out on errands, then cut her wrists and neck and jumped from a second-floor bedroom window. She survived, paralyzed from the waist down, and has remained at Tewksbury Hospital on suicide watch.
Clancy pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, citing severe postpartum depression and psychosis. She did not deny the killings under that plea. The first trial began in July and ran through five weeks of testimony that included Patrick’s 911 call, autopsy photos, mental-health history, and dueling psychiatric diagnoses.
Jurors deliberated 38 hours and deadlocked 11-1. The lone holdout was Michael Desronvil. Judge Sullivan declared a mistrial on September 4. That deadlock left the children’s deaths without a completed verdict and forced the court back into motion practice instead of resolution.
Defense filings have already reached for every available shield, including a bid that invokes double jeopardy to block a retrial after the hung jury.
Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz told reporters his office is still deciding the next step and has not confirmed whether it will retry Clancy or on what charges. Reddington said he is unavailable for any retrial until June. The New York Post reported the earliest window he offered was June 2027, and that he argued there was a “total and complete lack of evidence” Clancy killed Cora, Dawson, and Callan. Judge Sullivan said he is trying his best to move the case along.
Desronvil became the public flashpoint after the mistrial. Through counsel he stated he has “zero doubt” about Clancy’s guilt and pointed to what his side called mountains of evidence. Attorney Edward Paltzik, who previously represented President Donald Trump, spoke for him and traded sharp words with Reddington. Paltzik branded Reddington “Kevin ‘Shooter McGavin’ Reddington.” Reddington fired back that Paltzik was a “publicity-seeking opportunist.”
Heather O’Connor, another attorney appearing for Desronvil, stressed that the holdout wants privacy and justice for the children. She told reporters he alone was targeted because his vote differed from the rest of the panel.
"He’s the only one being targeted here because his decision and his vote was different than everyone else’s. People should not have to worry, just as the commonwealth said, jurors should not have to worry about coming in and having them outed because they take a stance different than everyone else."
Records noted in court coverage show Desronvil was arrested for domestic violence in 2021; that case was later dropped. An active restraining order existed while he served on the jury. Defense lawyers have sought further inquiry into his background. The judge put that request on the November 2 calendar along with a double-jeopardy dismissal motion and a state request for a gag order.
After the mistrial, the holdout juror broke his silence and insisted he never wavered on guilt, keeping the 11-1 split in public view.
Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague warned that releasing sealed juror notes could produce a “chilling effect” on future potential jurors. Martin Weinberg, a new member of Clancy’s team and a former Karen Read attorney, argued the notes from the final days of deliberations and sidebar discussions should still go public.
Coverage has also noted that a lawyer said the holdout juror faced death threats after the mistrial, underscoring how raw the case remains outside the courtroom.
Patrick Clancy made the original 911 call. He later spoke with 60 Minutes after the mistrial and revealed he is expecting a child with his new wife, Dr. Rachel Danis. The marriage that once centered on Cora, Dawson, and Callan is gone. The house in Duxbury where the children died stands as the fixed scene of the charges.
Earlier reporting on Patrick Clancy’s deleted Reddit posts charted the collapse before the children’s deaths, adding public texture to the months that preceded January 24, 2023.
In court, Reddington claimed outside pressure had shaped the atmosphere around the case. He said people called Clancy a demon who should be executed and added, “This is coming from politicians, from President Trump, all the way down.” Those remarks sit as the defense lawyer’s own characterization. They do not change the charging documents, the autopsy evidence presented at trial, or the jury’s 11-1 split.
Separately, Trump declined a pardon plea in the Lindsay Clancy case and called it a state matter, leaving the Massachusetts courts to finish their work.
Dozens of reporters packed the courthouse for the Tuesday appearance. Clancy is due back on November 2. Reddington also told the court there was “no investigation” worth the name. Buckingham rejected that attack. Sullivan has yet to decide whether the required finding of not guilty is even on the table.
Three small children are dead. A first-degree murder case produced five weeks of evidence, 38 hours of deliberation, and no verdict. One juror held out on guilt. The defense now says the file contains no proof of the killings at all and wants the charges erased. Prosecutors call that claim laughable and have not abandoned a second trial. The judge has postponed the hard calls until November.
Taxpayers, lawful residents, and every parent who expects the system to finish what it starts are left watching a courtroom calendar instead of a completed judgment. Mental illness claims and procedural motions do not erase the bodies of a five-year-old, a three-year-old, and an eight-month-old baby. If the evidence was as empty as Reddington insists, the state should never have brought the case. If it was as strong as eleven jurors and the holdout believed, delay only compounds the failure.
Three children cannot speak. The courts still can. Accountability means a finished verdict, not an endless loop of motions and mistrials.
