PLYMOUTH, MASS. (WHDH) - An 18-person jury has been seated in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Duxbury mother accused of murdering her three young children in 2023, after four days of questioning. Opening statements in the case are expected to be made on Monday.
The court questioned hundreds of prospective jurors about various issues, including whether they, or someone close to them, has had mental health challenges. The jury is comprised of 12 women and six men. After closing arguments are complete, six of the 18 jurors will be randomly selected as alternates.
Prosecutors argue Lindsay Clancy, now 35, deliberately strangled her three children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8-months, with exercise bands on January 24, 2023. The children’s father found them in the basement after he came home from picking up a prescription and dinner. Clancy also attempted to stab herself, and jumped out a window of her home. She survived, but is paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.
Clancy’s defense team doesn’t dispute that Clancy killed the children, but plans to raise an insanity defense. Her defense claims she was over-medicated and suffered from severe postpartum depression (PPD) at the time.
Clancy is charged with three counts of murder in the deaths of her children. She had also been previously charged with two counts of strangulation, but prosecutors dropped those charges after they decided they were redundant.
In the case, first responders are expected to testify about the screams they heard coming from the family’s home in Duxbury the night of the children’s deaths. There will also be testimony from several doctors with varying opinions on Clancy’s alleged mental health challenges.
Clancy’s Defense Attorney Kevin Reddington told the judge Thursday that his client is willing to legally admit to certain facts of the case, so people, including the father of her children, Patrick Clancy, do not have to suffer with hearing graphic testimony
“And the District Attorney wants to put that guy on the witness stand and show little onsies with bodily fliud of his child? What I can’t fathom is the District Attorney’s intent to put a circus in front of this jury,” Reddington said.
Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague argues the jury must see what happened, and believes Clancy’s testimony will be important.
“The Commonwealth did not choose the horrific nature in which they died. The defendant did. It is not the Commonwealth putting on a circus, or a parade, it is the Commonwealth presenting the evidence in this case to prove the defendant killed those children and the manner in which they were killed,” Sprague said.
Patrick Clancy, who has since remarried, sent a lawyer to court Thursday, asking the judge to prevent the media from publishing or broadcasting certain evidence in the trial, including “…the 911 recording of Mr. Clancy’s voice, certain photographs of the three child victims, and the clothing worn by the three child victims,” Patrick Clancy’s Lawyer David Meier said.
The judge said he will make a ruling on Patrick Clancy’s motion in the morning.
The trial is expected to last approximately two months.
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