Lindsay Clancy: Judge denies request for not guilty verdict from woman accused of killing her children

Lindsay Clancy, the woman accused of killing her three children, has failed to have the charges against her dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Clancy's trial ended without a verdict because of a deadlocked jury earlier this month

Judge William Sullivan had declared a mistrial with the jury split 11 to 1 in favour of acquitting her of murder charges.

On Thursday, he rejected a motion by Ms Clancy's legal team to drop the charges due to a lack of evidence, which was presented earlier this week.

In his ruling, the judge wrote that "evidence introduced, both physical and circumstantial, that would permit a rational trier of fact to find beyond a reasonable doubt the elements of the charge of murder".

It was up to the jury, not the judge, he added, to decide whether to believe the defence's expert witnesses who told the court that she was not responsible for her actions because of mental illness.

At trial, her lawyers did not dispute that Clancy, 36, a former labour and delivery nurse, carried out the killings at her family's home in Massachusetts in 2023.

They had argued that she was not criminally responsible because of a mental disease, specifically a rare condition called postpartum psychosis.

Prosecutors accepted Clancy, who is still charged with murder, had mental health problems but told jurors she knew what she was doing when she strangled the children - the youngest just eight months old - before trying to take her own life.

Presenting his case for dismissing the charges on Tuesday, Ms Clancy's attorney Kevin Reddington suggested the entire case "was based on speculation".

There was almost no police investigation, and significant questions remained about Clancy's condition outside the night of the killings and her lack of memory of what happened, he said.

Prosecutors argued there was plenty of evidence, calling Reddington's claim "laughable".

At the trial, jurors heard evidence that Clancy said she heard voices telling her to kill Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan Clancy.

Her DNA was found on exercise bands used to strangle them.

Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham told the judge "the entire record is voluminous as to information supporting the fact that she did this".

Ms Clancy is expected to stay at a psychiatric hospital until her case is resolved.

Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to bring the case to trial for a second time.

Clancy could have been jailed for life if convicted of murder or held in a mental health facility if acquitted.

Her former husband, Patrick Clancy, who discovered the children's bodies, has said in interviews he forgives her for the killings.

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