Lindsay Clancy appears in court as her lawyer pushes for murder case to be dismissed
Clancy's defence lawyer wants her to be cleared of murdering her three children in 2023 but prosecutors say the state proved guilt.
Lindsay Clancy appears in court as her lawyer seeks dismissal of murder case
Lindsay Clancy, the US woman accused of killing her three children, appeared in court for the first time since her murder trial collapsed earlier this month.
On Tuesday, her defence team argued that the judge should throw out the case, while prosecutors said the state had "met its burden" in proving her guilt.
Clancy, 36, does not dispute that she killed her three children in 2023, but her defence says she was experiencing severe postpartum psychosis at the time. Prosecutors maintain the killings were deliberate.
It remains unclear whether she will face a retrial. Judge William Sullivan said the request to dismiss the case is among the issues to be considered at a hearing on 2 November.
One of the motions heard on Tuesday came from Clancy's lawyer, Kevin Reddington, who asked for her to be found not guilty under Rule 25 - a Massachusetts motion stating that a defendant should be found not guilty if prosecutors fail to present their case effectively.
Reddington also advanced a new argument, saying there was insufficient evidence to prove Clancy killed her children.
"This entire case is based on speculation," he said.
That marked a shift in the defence's approach. During the trial, Reddington focused on Clancy's mental health, urging the jury to find her not criminally responsible on that basis.
Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham described Reddington's argument as "laughable".
She said state prosecutors had introduced multiple pieces of evidence during the trial showing Clancy was in a healthy mental state at the time of the murders.
"The Commonwealth met its burden," Buckingham said.
She argued that Clancy knew what she was doing when she killed her three children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, who was eight months old, in their Massachusetts home.
Judge Sullivan pushed back after both Reddington and Buckingham declined to accept his suggestion that they might agree now on a possible retrial date before the hearing, saying he wanted to "get this thing moving".
He told both sides to be ready to discuss possible trial dates at the November hearing.
Reddington said he would not be able to go to trial until at least June if the case is retried.
District Attorney Timothy Cruz told reporters outside court afterward that prosecutors have not yet decided whether they will 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."
After 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.