Prosecutors suspect Lindsay Clancy committed planned murder when she killed her three children in her Duxbury, Massachusetts, home before attempting suicide.
According to court records, the Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three small children before slashing her wrists and jumping out of a second-story window in an attempt to commit herself intends to pursue an insanity defense.
According to court documents, Lindsay Clancy’s defense counsel, Kevin Reddington, filed a defendant’s notice of lack of criminal culpability in Plymouth Superior Court on Friday, Dec 13.
The document, which PEOPLE received, indicates “that statements of the defendant as to her mental condition will be relied upon by the defendant’s expert witnesses and the defendant does intend to present to the court a defense of lack of criminal responsibility.”
Clancy, who was paralyzed by injuries sustained when she jumped out of the window, is charged with three counts of murder and three counts of strangulation or suffocation in connection with the harrowing Jan. 24, 2023, incident at the Duxbury, Mass., home she shared with her husband, Patrick Clancy and their three children.
She’s pled not guilty.
She is being held at Tewksbury State Hospital, Reddington stated during a live court appearance on Wednesday, December 18th.
During that hearing, the court scheduled the trial for December 1, 2025.
On Friday, December 13, Jennifer Sprague, Assistant District Attorney for the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office, submitted a motion for a trial date, requesting that it be set in September 2025.
Clancy did not attend the hearing. Her appearance was canceled.
Premeditated Murder or Psychotic Break?
Prosecutors believe Clancy premeditated the killings of her three children — daughter Cora, 5, and sons Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 — by strangling them with exercise bands in the basement of their Duxbury, Massachusetts home.
Her attorney claimed in court in February 2023 that she was undergoing a psychotic break when she killed the children, and that the terrible event “clearly was a product of mental illness,” according to The New York Times.