Crime
“The unavoidable conclusion is that Lindsay Clancy cannot be given a fair trial in Plymouth County,” her lawyer argued.
Lindsay Clancy, the Duxbury mother accused of killing her three young children, is seeking to have her high-profile murder case tried in Boston.
Her lawyer, Kevin Reddington, has requested a change in venue for Clancy’s upcoming trial, currently slated to begin Feb. 9 in Plymouth Superior Court. In a motion filed Monday, he pointed to the intense media coverage surrounding the case and requested the trial be held instead in Suffolk County.
“The allegations of the charges are violent and intriguing and they certainly have been portrayed in a fashion in the media so as to guarantee extensive exploitive, prejudicial publicity,” Reddington wrote in a memo accompanying the request.
He argued Clancy’s case sent an “electric shock” running through Duxbury, leading to a staggering number of articles and news clips that make it “impossible” for her to receive a fair trial in her home county.
Clancy, 35, is accused of strangling her three children before severely injuring herself in a suicide attempt on Jan. 24, 2023. She has pleaded not guilty to three counts each of murder and strangulation in the deaths of 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan Clancy.
Prosecutors have sought to paint her as cold and calculating, alleging she sent her husband out of the house on errands to give herself more time to kill. Reddington, meanwhile, has argued Clancy was heavily medicated and in the throes of postpartum mental illness following the birth of her third child. He’s indicated Clancy plans to pursue an insanity defense, essentially arguing she can’t be held criminally responsible for the killings due to her mental state.
In seeking the change of venue, Reddington argued publicity surrounding the case has been “so highly prejudicial” that a move outside Plymouth County is needed to protect Clancy’s right to due process.
“The print and electronic media have shown no responsible concern for the defendant’s constitutional guarantee of a fair trial,” he wrote, adding, “In the present case, the defendant has already been tried in the public eye.”
The pervasive and “inflammatory” media coverage of the case has the potential to create an “extremely biased” jury pool, Reddington argued.
“In light of the extensive media coverage in this case, the prejudicial information contained in the media coverage, the continuous nature of the coverage and the community disapproval the coverage has evoked, the unavoidable conclusion is that Lindsay Clancy cannot be given a fair trial in Plymouth County,” he wrote.
Separately, Reddington has filed a motion to push Clancy’s trial back until at least May 11, with prosecutors’ consent. The pending request cites unresolved pretrial issues, “including government evaluation by government physicians of the defendant, the defendant’s consultation with [a] toxicologist and psychopharmacologist, [and] preparation and filing of substantive motions.”
Clancy’s next hearing is Nov. 18.
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