Defense attorney asks Trump to pardon Lindsay Clancy after mistrial
Senior Digital Editor/Producer, WCVB.com
The attorney for Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of strangling her three children in 2023, asked President Donald Trump to pardon his client on Tuesday after a mistrial was declared last week in the high-profile murder case.
Appearing on “Good Morning America,” attorney Kevin Reddington spoke about the next steps in the case.
“I’d like to say that perhaps Donald Trump, who felt compelled to speak out about this case, may very well… Mr. President, I would hope that you would consider this young lady, the type of person she is, what she has been through, and consider a pardon,” Reddington said.
The 75-year-old, Brockton-based attorney received national attention for his fiery defense during Clancy’s murder trial. She is accused of murder for the strangulation of her three children in 2023 and now faces a potential retrial as soon as this fall.
When asked about the case on Friday, Trump called it a “horrible tragedy.”
“It’s a terrible situation. Look, she did a horrible, horrible thing. It can’t be worse. But, we will find out what the price to pay is. There will be a price. It’s going to be mental institution or jail or something,” Trump said.
Clancy didn’t dispute that she killed the children, but Reddington argued that she should not be found criminally responsible because she was in the throes of postpartum psychosis at the time. Reddington said the jury, which had deliberated for seven days, was ultimately stuck at 11-1, with one juror holding out to convict.
Reddington said he respects the juror’s right to be a holdout; however, he believes the juror did not follow the law as it was laid out by Judge William Sullivan.
“(The juror) had agreed, according to the note from the forelady, that he had doubt but he would not apply the law of reasonable doubt as presented by the judge. That is not right,” Reddington said.
Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz has not indicated if he plans to retry the case; however, Reddington said he is hopeful they can avoid another trial.
“I hope, however, after sitting through this trial and seeing the evidence that was presented from the government, as well as from the defense, that he would revisit that issue and hopefully would be willing to work something out that would be acceptable to both sides,” Reddington said.
Reddington, who has been a member of the Massachusetts Bar since 1975, threw a last-minute Hail Mary on Friday when he took the case to the Supreme Judicial Court in an attempt to get the one holdout replaced. The motion was ultimately denied and, with the jury having reported deadlock multiple times, Sullivan was forced to declare a mistrial.
Last week Reddington lashed out at Cruz for pursuing the murder case.
“Cruz knows that he was crushed; he doesn’t have a case, he doesn’t have to stand here and say that he’s advocating on behalf of the victims and then look down to see what their names are,” Reddington said. “I’m representing a woman who is a fantastic, wonderful individual. This woman is so brave… every day she came in this courthouse, stood tall… sat there through seven weeks of a trial where nobody had anything bad to say about her except the two prosecutors and apparently Tim Cruz.”
Clancy is scheduled to return to court later this month for a status hearing, trial assignment and a hearing on a rule that allows a judge to review a jury’s verdict. While a timeline for the case remains unclear, Reddington has previously said that he’s “ready to go” as early as next week, if need be.
“The bottom line is that this couple, they were a family, and they had the children — Cora, Dawson, Callan — and as a family, they were very, very, very happy. That summer of (2022), they were very happy. It was the top of the world for them and the children, and then she had the postpartum depression that struck at the end of September and into October. And this young lady had the pleasure of being introduced, if you will, to a psychiatrist, who had been practicing as a doctor for a month, who advertised that she was an expert in postpartum, and Lindsay just went to see this doctor, which was the worst thing that she ever could have done because she was then placed on all of these medications,” Reddington said.
