PLYMOUTH, MASS. (WHDH) - The judge presiding over Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial denied her defense team’s request for a mistrial Monday afternoon, after Clancy’s attorney called out testimony from a prosecution witness who referenced Clancy’s Catholic faith.
The testimony about religion by Dr. Kirk Heilbrun, a forensic psychologist and professor at Drexel University, brought about the mistrial request.
“When I said suicide isn’t a mortal sin,” Heilbrun began, before Reddington interrupted him by objecting. Judge William Sullivan then asked to speak with the prosecution.
The judge thought Heilbrun’s reference to Catholicism and mortal sin was objectionable. He was also critical of the prosecution for an exchange with the victims’ grandmother last week that referenced Clancy’s faith.
“Are you an active member in the Catholic church?” Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham asked the victims’ grandmother on August 18.
“Yes,” she replied.
“So you’re aware that murder is considered a mortal sin?” Buckingham asked, before Judge William Sullivan cut in and asked to speak with Buckingham.
Clancy’s Defense Attorney Kevin Reddington called the testimony involving religion willful misconduct on the part of the Commonwealth.
“This is just over the top. It’s the same thing again, talking about religion, talking about heaven,” Reddington said.
The judge denied the defense’s request, but told jurors to set that testimony aside.
“The religion that the defendant was raised with is aboslutely an inappropriate area of testimony,” Sullivan told jurors.
Heilbrun told the jury earlier in the day that he concluded Clancy has bipolar disorder currently, but is not psychotic, and did not have a psychotic break in January 2023 when she strangled her three children in their home in Duxbury. Heilbrun said he was also suspicious of Clancy’s claim that she heard an external male voice telling her to kill her children.
“She heard a voice that she never heard before and she’s never experienced it since, but she only experienced it for the 18 minutes or so that it took to kill the children. To put it mildly, that would be a very, very unusual pattern or manifestation of how this kind of thing comes about,” he said.
Heilbrun also noted that when Clancy’s then-husband Patrick found her on the ground, injured in their backyard after she jumped from a second-floor window, he asked her, “what did you do?” Patrick said Lindsay answered, “I tried to kill myself.”
“If she actually experienced this command hallucination, then she might have said something like, ‘I did what I had to do. I did what the voice said,'” Heilbrun said.
Heilbrun will be cross-examined by Reddington Tuesday, in what is expected to be the last day of testimony. Closing arguments are expected to be given on Wednesday.
(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)