BOMBSHELL IN LINDSAY CLANCY CASE AS JUDGE REJECTS FINAL BID TO STOP M-UR-DER TRIAL — LAST WITNESS ACCUSES MOM OF ‘MISLEADING’ FAMILY
LINDSAY Clancy lawyer has failed in a final bid to stop her murder case from reaching the jury after the prosecution’s last witness accused the mom of misleading those around her about her mental state.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington asked Judge William Sullivan for a required finding of not guilty on Wednesday, moments after prosecutors formally rested their case.
Defendant Lindsay Clancy watches the jury as Judge William Sullivan addresses them at the start of the day in court during the Lindsay Clancy murder trial in Plymouth Superior Court on Tuesday, August 25, 2026Credit: AP
Kevin Reddington, attorney for Lindsay Clancy, is surrounded by members of the news media as he arrives at the courthouse for closing arguments in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial at the Plymouth Superior Court on August 26, 2026Credit: AFP via Getty Images
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Gregory Saathoff resumes his testimony about the mental state of Lindsay Clancy during Clancy’s murder trial in Plymouth Superior Court on August 26, 2026Credit: AP
But the Commonwealth opposed the move and Sullivan rejected it, clearing the way for jurors to decide whether Clancy was criminally responsible for killing her three children.
The dramatic ruling came at Plymouth Superior Court after 21 days of testimony and a final morning of bitter clashes over Clancy’s mental health.
Prosecution psychiatrist Dr. Gregory Saathoff had told jurors that Clancy sometimes presented a different picture of herself to relatives than what she later said she was experiencing internally.
Saathoff previously pointed to texts and family photos from before the killings that he said portrayed “something very different” from the severe struggles Clancy later described.
But Reddington pushed back Wednesday, challenging the suggestion that Clancy had deliberately misled her family as he tore into the psychiatrist’s conclusions.
The defense also scored concessions from Saathoff, including his agreement that psychological testing found Clancy was not malingering or exaggerating her symptoms.
Saathoff nevertheless stood firmly behind his ultimate conclusion that Clancy was criminally responsible when she strangled Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan.
He told jurors Clancy “had control” during the killings, pointing to the decisions she made despite claiming an outside voice had ordered her to kill the children and herself.
The psychiatrist said the alleged voice gave Clancy no instructions about where or how to kill the children, yet she was still able to carry out a sequence of actions while Patrick was away.
He also cited Clancy returning Patrick’s phone call without telling him she was in distress, saying that helped ensure he continued his errands rather than returning home.
But Saathoff also acknowledged Clancy was genuinely mentally ill and pushed back on part of the prosecution’s own opening statement, saying its description of her actions “really minimizes what she was going through.”
After Saathoff stepped down, prosecutors rested and Sullivan sent jurors home, warning them to avoid coverage of the case and keep an open mind.
Reddington then made his unsuccessful bid for a required finding of not guilty.
The lawyers are due back Wednesday afternoon for a charge conference, where they will battle over the instructions Sullivan will give jurors.
Closing arguments are expected Thursday before the case finally goes to the panel for deliberations.
Clancy, 36, has admitted killing her children at the family’s Duxbury, Massachusetts, home on January 24, 2023, but argues postpartum psychosis left her unable to appreciate or control what she was doing.
Prosecutors maintain that although Clancy was suffering from mental illness, she could still make decisions, understood right from wrong and should be held criminally responsible.
Graphic warning: Lindsay Clancy’s trial involves disturbing details in its discussion of suicide, postpartum psychosis, and murder. Please scroll with discretion.
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