Proceedings could begin in March
Judge William Sullivan on Monday rejected a motion to dismiss Lindsay Clancy’s murder case and cleared the way for a retrial in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Sullivan said a second prosecution would not unconstitutionally subject Clancy to being tried twice for the same crime.
Sullivan set a November 16 hearing to discuss when the second trial would be held and said March was a possible date.
Lindsay Clancy during a court appearance in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on September 29, 2026. Photograph: Greg Derr/Reuters.
The ruling followed Sullivan’s declaration on September 4 of a mistrial after the jury reported that a holdout juror was preventing a unanimous verdict. Clancy’s lawyers argued that the retrial would violate Clancy’s constitutional protection against being tried twice for the same crime, known as double jeopardy, saying Sullivan acted prematurely in declaring the mistrial and should have pursued a viable alternative.
Citing jury notes that stated the holdout juror was not following the law on reasonable doubt despite Sullivan’s instructions, Clancy’s lawyers said Sullivan should have questioned the holdout and potentially removed the juror.
Prosecutors under Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz countered that Sullivan handled the jury impasse appropriately. The prosecutors warned that questioning the holdout could have risked Sullivan inappropriately interfering with jury deliberations.
Clancy’s lawyers have argued that she was experiencing postpartum psychosis and should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, a verdict known in Massachusetts as lack of criminal responsibility.
Some jurors later said in televised interviews that, but for the holdout, they had been prepared to find Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity. Such a verdict would have sent Clancy to a state psychiatric hospital, subject to regular court review.
At the initial trial, no one disputed that Clancy strangled her daughter Cora, five, her son Dawson, three, and their eight-month-old son Callan with exercise bands on January 24, 2023. The killings occurred in the basement of the family’s home in Duxbury, a Boston suburb.
Afterward, Clancy cut herself with a knife and jumped from a second-story window in an attempt to end her own life. She was left paralyzed.
In Massachusetts, a conviction on first-degree murder charges carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.
Sullivan’s ruling leaves the retrial schedule and Clancy’s insanity defense unresolved. The November 16 hearing is the next procedural step.