Warning: This story contains distressing details and discussion of attempted suicide
Lindsay Clancy, the US woman accused of murdering her three children, has appeared in court for the first time since her murder trial fell apart earlier this month.
Her defence team on Tuesday argued the judge should dismiss her case but prosecutors said the state had “met its burden” in proving her guilt.
Clancy, 36, does not deny killing her three children in 2023, but her defence team argues she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis at the time. Prosecutors say the killings were intentional.
One of the motions addressed on Tuesday was from Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, who asked for her to be found not guilty under Rule 25 – a Massachusetts motion that states a defendant should be found not guilty if prosecutors do not argue their case effectively.
Reddington also brought a new defence forward arguing there was not enough evidence to prove Clancy killed her children.
“This entire case is based on speculation,” he said.
It was a change of argument from the defence lawyer, who during the trial focused on Clancy’s mental health – urging the jury to find her not criminally responsible because of it.
Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham called Reddington’s argument “laughable”.
She said state prosecutors had presented numerous pieces of evidence showing Clancy was in a healthy mental state at the time of the murders during the trial.
“The Commonwealth met its burden,” Buckingham said.
She argued Clancy knew what she was doing when she killed her three children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, who was eight months, in their Massachusetts home.
Judge Sullivan pushed back when both Reddington and Buckingham refused to agree to his suggestion that they might agree to a possible retrial date now ahead of the hearing, saying he wanted to “get this thing moving”.
He asked both sides to be prepared to discuss possible trial dates at the November hearing.
Reddington said he would be unable to go to trial until at least June if the case is retried.
District Attorney Timothy Cruz told reporters outside after court that prosecutors have not yet decided if they are going to retry Clancy on murder charges.
“We’re doing our due diligence, we’re going to continue doing that,” he said. “We’re going to do what we can for the children. That’s what this case is about.”
Following a week of deliberations earlier this month, a Massachusetts jury told Sullivan they could not reach a verdict because of a lone holdout juror and a mistrial was declared on 4 September.
