Lindsay Clancy returned to a Plymouth, Massachusetts courtroom Tuesday morning as her lawyer pressed to throw out three murder charges, arguing prosecutors never proved she was responsible for the deaths of her three children. The hearing came more than three weeks after a judge declared a mistrial.
ABC News reported that defense attorney Kevin Reddington told the court the case should end now. He said prosecutors failed to show she was responsible for the deaths of Cora, Dawson, and Callan, and he framed the state’s theory as guesswork rather than proof.
The stakes are plain. Clancy, a former nurse, remains charged with three murder counts and has pleaded not guilty. A five-week trial produced no verdict. State prosecutors have not yet said whether they will retry her, reduce the charges, or drop the case. For a conservative audience watching courts, evidence standards, and accountability after the deaths of three children, the next moves by the bench and the district attorney’s office will matter as much as the rhetoric in the hallway.
Reddington did not soften his language. He told the court the prosecution’s theory rests on inference rather than hard proof, and he denied any confession by his client.
"This entire case is based on speculation,"
He followed with a second line that went to the heart of the defense’s new posture.
"There is no evidence that she admitted she did this."
The New York Post reported that Reddington also described a “total and complete lack of evidence” that she killed Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, who was 8 months old. That framing marks a sharp turn from the first trial, where coverage stated Clancy did not contest that she killed the children and instead focused on mental state.
The Washington Examiner noted the same shift. In the first trial the defense centered on postpartum psychosis and overmedication. At the post-mistrial hearing, Reddington added a frontal attack on proof of the act itself, saying there is not enough evidence “that this woman killed those children.”
On Jan. 24, 2023, Cora, Dawson, and Callan died at the family’s home in Duxbury, a Boston suburb. Reporting on the case states the children were strangled. State prosecutors have alleged Clancy used exercise bands, then tried to take her own life that night. Prosecutors say that attempt left her paralyzed and in a wheelchair.
Clancy was charged with three murder counts and pleaded not guilty. At trial, her defense argued she was in the grip of postpartum psychosis and had been overmedicated. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists treats postpartum psychosis as a psychiatric emergency. Prosecutors answered that she was criminally responsible and capable of understanding the severity of her actions.
Those competing accounts never produced a unanimous verdict. The trial ran five weeks. Then the jury locked up.
Breitbart reported the panel deadlocked 11-1 in favor of acquittal on the murder charges. A mistrial followed. Reuters put the mistrial date at September 4 and said most jurors favored not guilty by reason of insanity, with one holdout blocking a unanimous result.
Holdout juror Michael Desronvil later spoke publicly about the attention fixed on him. He said the focus should return to the children, calling them “the three angels.” Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz, speaking to reporters about the case’s purpose, said his goal was always “getting justice for those three little babies.”
Defense filings and argument have also put juror conduct under scrutiny. Prosecutors, for their part, have sought tighter control of public statements as media coverage intensifies and the parties fight over what comes next.
Judge William Sullivan did not decide the dismissal request on the spot. He scheduled a follow-up hearing for Nov. 2 to take up retrial timing, defense motions, and related issues. Reuters reported that the November session is also expected to address an inquiry tied to the holdout juror and a prosecutors’ request for a gag order.
Reddington told the court the earliest he would be available for a retrial is June 2027, if the case is tried again at all. No retrial date was set Tuesday. Sullivan stressed the need to move the matter forward without unnecessary delay, even as he put off an immediate ruling on the bid to end the prosecution.
Courtroom coverage described Clancy smiling after the court delayed action on the dismissal request. Reddington also drew laughter at one point when he answered a question with, “Believe it or not I do.” The exchange changed nothing about the legal posture. The charges remain. The not-guilty plea stands. The state still has not announced a final decision on retrying the murder counts, offering lesser charges, or ending the case.
Reddington’s hearing argument braided two themes. First, he said the evidence never established the act in the way a murder conviction requires. Second, he continued to argue that psychosis defined her condition. Reuters recorded him saying the evidence “shows clearly and unequivocally that she was in a state of psychosis,” and pressing again on the absence of an admission: “Where is the admission?”
Prosecutors have not publicly adopted that framing. Their trial position was that Clancy acted with criminal responsibility and understood what she was doing. They have described a deliberate sequence at the Duxbury home after she sent her husband out. The hearing record, as reported, does not show a new on-the-record concession by the state that proof is lacking.
Investigators and the court still face practical questions that remain unanswered in public. Authorities have not publicly confirmed a final retry decision. The judge has not yet issued a public ruling on the dismissal request. No public results have been released from any fresh inquiry into juror conduct. Defense counsel has signaled it wants the case ended short of a second trial. The state has kept its options open.
A mistrial is not an acquittal. It is a failure to reach a lawful verdict. That leaves the charging power, the evidence record, and the court’s management of a high-profile case squarely in view. Clancy remains held at a psychiatric hospital while the murder charges continue. Families, jurors, and the public are left watching whether the next hearing produces a clear order, a narrowed charging decision, or a path to another multi-week trial nearly a year later.
Tuesday’s session was the first court appearance since the deadlock. It did not resolve the central collision in the file: a defense now attacking proof of the act and pressing psychosis, against a prosecution that has called the conduct deliberate and still must say whether it will put the case to a second jury. Nov. 2 is the next scheduled checkpoint.
When three children are dead and a murder case ends without a verdict, the public is owed proof tested in open court, not speculation dressed up as certainty, and institutions that either try the case on real evidence or explain why they will not.
