Lindsay Clancy Returns to Court Monday as a Judge Weighs Whether She Can Be Tried Again

Lindsay Clancy is scheduled to return to Plymouth Superior Court on Monday for a hearing that could determine whether she faces a second trial in the 2023 deaths of her three young children in Duxbury, WBUR reported Friday.

Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial in September after the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. Jurors reported during and after the trial that all but one of the 12 believed Clancy's mental health was so compromised that she should not be held criminally responsible. The lone holdout has said Clancy should have been found guilty of first-degree murder, according to WBUR.

The Plymouth County District Attorney's Office has not publicly said what it plans to do, including whether it would again seek a first-degree murder conviction or try her on lesser charges. But in a motion filed this week, prosecutors signaled they intend to continue. Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague asked the court to "deny the defendant's motion to dismiss and allow the Commonwealth to continue to pursue justice" for the children, and wrote that "double jeopardy does not operate to bar a retrial."

The central motion Monday is the defense request to dismiss the case on double jeopardy grounds, the constitutional rule that a person cannot be tried twice for the same crime. Sullivan has not ruled on it since an initial status hearing in September.

The defense argument turns on what happened during deliberations. According to WBUR, the jury foreperson reported that the panel was at an impasse because one juror was not following the law on reasonable doubt, despite the judge's repeated instructions. Defense attorney Kevin Reddington argues that the judge should have questioned and possibly replaced that juror, and that the court wrongly believed it had to declare a mistrial. If a mistrial was not necessary, the defense contends, a retrial would be barred.

Sprague's motion responds that further questioning of the juror during the trial could have amounted to judicial coercion and interfered with deliberations, and that the mistrial was properly declared.

Legal observers expect a retrial. "You don't write words like that if you're not thinking that you're going to have a retrial," Keith Halpern, a criminal defense attorney not involved in the case, told WBUR. "I don't think there was ever any question that they were gonna retry this case in one form or another."

A second pending motion concerns publicity. Prosecutors have asked the judge to bar attorneys from speaking to the media about the case, saying such an order would prevent the "carnival atmosphere" that surrounded the trial. The defense called the proposed restriction "speculative" and "vague." "The government asks the court to restrain counsel's speech without evidence, to protect a jury that doesn't exist, at a trial that has not even been scheduled, under an order that singles out one side's speech about discharged jurors," the defense response said.

Sullivan has already denied two defense requests since the mistrial, according to WBUR: one for a not guilty finding based on insufficient evidence, and one for an investigation of the holdout juror. Reddington had sought to question the juror about his prior involvement with the criminal legal system and whether he improperly used his cellphone during deliberations. The judge has extended a seal on the jurors' names and impounded trial exhibits.

A related civil case also moved this week. In Norfolk Superior Court on Wednesday, Judge Michael Doolin took under advisement a motion to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit that Clancy's ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, filed against her former health care providers, alleging they failed to provide adequate care. At that hearing, his attorney, Howard Cooper, suggested Lindsay Clancy would testify that she told clinicians she had thoughts of harming her children, WBUR reported.

Reddington disputed that. "Lindsay Clancy never told any of her healthcare providers that she harbored homicidal ideation toward her children," he said in a statement. "She never indicated that she intended to testify in Mr. Clancy's lawsuit, and no one acting for her ever represented that she would." He said "Mr. Clancy does not speak for Lindsay Clancy." The claims in the civil suit are allegations that have not been decided.

Clancy remains at Tewksbury Hospital, where she has been held since 2023. She is paralyzed from the chest down after a suicide attempt following the children's deaths, according to WBUR.

Open questions for Monday: whether Sullivan rules from the bench on the double jeopardy motion, whether he limits what lawyers can say publicly, and whether prosecutors disclose what charge they would pursue at a second trial.