Plymouth County Superior Court, Massachusetts · No. 2383CR00199
Commonwealth v. Clancy
Courtroom View · Preview
The room, one moment at a time
The same case as the Chronological View, drawn as the room it happened in. Move the line along the bar, or step with Previous and Next, and the room changes with the moment: who was in it, who was only on a screen, and which parts of it stood empty.
Still being built. A filled circle is someone a source places in the room that day: a minute entry, a transcript, a photograph or a report, linked from the card. A hollow one is someone who was part of the case at that point and is not recorded in the room, which on most dates is because nothing happened in court at all. A question mark explains a part of the room. The plan is a plain one and not a drawing of the real courtroom.
- In the room
- By video
- In the case, not recorded in the room
- ?About this part of the room
In the room
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The judge, Plymouth District Court
Judge John Canavan
Presided at the first arraignment on 7 February 2023 and ordered her held in a medical facility. The indictment that September moved the case to the Superior Court.
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The judge, Superior Court
Sullivan, J.
William Sullivan. Presided at the hospital arraignment in October 2023 and at every day of the trial, declared the mistrial on 4 September 2026, and heard the Rule 25 motion on 29 September.
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For the Commonwealth
Jennifer Sprague
Assistant District Attorney. Appeared at the October 2023 arraignment, was named by the clerk for the Commonwealth at the start of each trial day, and spoke for it on the day of the mistrial.
Tr. Closing Arguments; Tr. Day 21
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For the Commonwealth
Shanan Buckingham
Assistant District Attorney. Gave the Commonwealth’s opening on 27 July 2026, was named by the clerk at the start of each trial day, and answered the Rule 25 motion on 29 September.
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The defendant
Lindsay Clancy
By video from a hospital bed in 2023 and by Zoom in November 2025. Her first appearance in a courtroom in person came on 20 February 2026. At trial she sat in a wheelchair, and the clerk recorded her as present at the start of each day.
NBC10 Boston, 27 Jul 2026; Tr. Closing Arguments; Patriot Ledger photographs, 29 Sept 2026
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Counsel for the defence
Kevin Reddington
Sat beside her at the October 2023 arraignment, opened for the defence on 27 July 2026, and was her only lawyer named by the clerk at trial. Argued the Rule 25 motion on 29 September.
NBC10 Boston, 27 Jul 2026; Tr. Closing Arguments; Patriot Ledger photographs, 29 Sept 2026
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At the defence table
A psychiatrist retained by the defence
At the arraignment of 26 October 2023 she sat in a wheelchair between this psychiatrist and her lawyer.
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Co-counsel for the defence
Martin Weinberg
Filed the double jeopardy motion on 21 September 2026. The sources used here do not place him in the courtroom.
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On the stand, first
Her former husband
The first witness, on 27 July 2026. He was the one who found the children. He told the jury he had never seen her harm them.
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On the stand
First responders and investigators
The paramedics, firefighters and police who came to the house, and the officers who worked the scene.
Tr. Day 3
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On the stand
The medical examiner and the forensic examiners
The cause of each death, and what was on the phones and computers.
Tr. Day 13
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On the stand
The clinicians who treated her
Her psychiatrist testified across two full days and a nurse practitioner for a third. Neither had recorded observing psychosis.
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On the stand
A State Police forensic examiner
Agreed in cross-examination that there were no “ways to kill” searches on the computer.
Tr. Day 13
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On the stand
Family, and the family’s nanny
The people who lived alongside her in the months before.
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On the stand
A forensic psychiatrist for the defence
Said she was frankly psychotic that day, acting out of a suicidal conviction that the children could not survive without her.
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On the stand
A second defence expert
Concluded she could neither appreciate the wrongfulness of the act nor conform her conduct to the law.
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On the stand, in rebuttal
A forensic expert for the Commonwealth
The first of three. Between them: a major depressive episode, but no mania and so no psychosis.
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On the stand, in rebuttal
A second forensic expert
The second of three called by the Commonwealth to answer the defence experts.
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On the stand, in rebuttal
The last of the three
Told the jury it was unusual that she had never reported a voice to any clinician before that day, and “very unusual” that it stopped when it did.
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The jury
Eighteen jurors
Twelve women and six men, six of them to be alternates. Two of those first seated were excused and replaced before the panel was complete. The judge said why there were so many: it was “a lengthy case over the summer.”
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The jury
Twelve deliberating jurors
Drawn at random from the eighteen on 27 August 2026, leaving nine women and three men. The six alternates were set apart. Five verdicts were open to the twelve.
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The jury, divided
Eleven jurors
Reportedly accepted the defence account, that she was not criminally responsible. A verdict has to be unanimous, so eleven decided nothing. Several were visibly upset when the mistrial was declared.
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The jury, divided
One juror
The holdout, who reportedly did not accept the defence account. The foreperson says he acknowledged reasonable doubt and would not return the verdict it pointed to. He says he had no doubt at all. He is “Juror Doe” in the filings.
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In the gallery
Her father
Photographed listening from the public benches at the hearing of 29 September 2026.
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In the gallery
A lawyer for “Juror Doe”
Appeared for the holdout juror at the hearing of 29 September 2026.
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The public gallery
Nobody in person
The hearing was held at the hospital. The public could watch over Zoom.
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The public gallery
Packed
A photograph from the closing arguments shows the public benches full.
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The public gallery
Full, with an overflow room
The courthouse was crowded enough on the last day that spectators were sent to an overflow room, and the press was there in numbers.
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The public gallery
The rest of the benches
Beyond the two people the record puts here, the sources used do not say who watched.
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The public gallery
Open, and on camera
The trial was open to the public and broadcast from a pool camera in the room. Who sat here day to day is not in the sources used. By the closing arguments the benches were full.
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The public gallery
Not recorded
The sources used here do not say who watched.
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The public gallery
Not in use
Nothing was heard in this courtroom on this date.
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The witness stand
Empty: no witnesses yet
The week was spent choosing a jury. The first witness, her former husband, was called after the openings on 27 July.
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The witness stand
Empty: the evidence is closed
The Commonwealth had rested its rebuttal. What was left was argument and the judge’s instructions.
Tr. Day 21
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The witness stand
Empty
No more evidence is heard once a jury is deliberating.
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The witness stand
Empty: no witnesses
Nobody gave evidence at this hearing.
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The witness stand
Not in use
Where a witness sits to give evidence under oath, beside the judge and facing the lawyers.
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The jury box
Empty: no jury yet
A jury is chosen at the start of a trial, and this trial was put back three times. Eighteen jurors were finally seated in the week of 20 July 2026.
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The jury box
Empty: the jury was discharged
The judge discharged the jury on 4 September 2026 with nothing decided. The list of jurors’ names has been impounded since 14 September. If the case is tried again, a new jury sits here.
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The bench
Empty: no case yet
Where the judge sits, raised above the rest of the room. On this date the case had not reached a court.
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The witness stand
Empty: no case yet
Where a witness sits to give evidence under oath, beside the judge and facing the lawyers. On this date the case had not reached a court.
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The jury box
Empty: no case yet
Where the jurors sit, along the wall nearest the side that has to prove its case. On this date the case had not reached a court.
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The Commonwealth’s table
Empty: no case yet
Where the side that brings the case sits with its lawyers. It is always drawn on the left here. On this date the case had not reached a court.
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The defence table
Empty: no case yet
Where the side that answers the case sits with its lawyers. On this date the case had not reached a court.
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The public gallery
Empty: no case yet
Benches behind the bar for the public and the press. Courts sit in the open, so anyone may take a seat. On this date the case had not reached a court.
Days in court
- 7 Feb 2023 Plymouth District Court. The judge was in the courtroom and the defendant was on a screen, from a hospital bed in Boston.
- 26 Oct 2023 Not a courtroom at all: the Superior Court sat at Tewksbury State Hospital, where she was being held. The room drawn here stands in for it.
- 18 Nov 2025 A hearing in the Superior Court. She attended by Zoom.
- 20 Jul 2026 Plymouth Superior Court, before Judge Sullivan. Jury selection, which ran through the week. WJAR, 23 Jul 2026
- Jul–Aug 2026 Plymouth Superior Court, before Judge Sullivan. The Commonwealth’s witnesses, from the openings on 27 July until it rested. NBC10 Boston, 27 Jul 2026; Tr. Day 3
- Aug 2026 Plymouth Superior Court, before Judge Sullivan. Cross-examination of the Commonwealth’s investigators. Tr. Day 13
- Aug 2026 Plymouth Superior Court, before Judge Sullivan. The defence witnesses. Tr. Day 15
- Aug 2026 Plymouth Superior Court, before Judge Sullivan. The Commonwealth’s rebuttal witnesses. Tr. Day 20
- 27 Aug 2026 Plymouth Superior Court, before Judge Sullivan. Closing arguments, the judge’s instructions, and the draw that left twelve jurors to deliberate. Tr. Closing Arguments
- 1–3 Sept 2026 Plymouth Superior Court, before Judge Sullivan. The jury deliberated in another room and came back in when it sent a note.
- 4 Sept 2026 Plymouth Superior Court, before Judge Sullivan. The third note, and the mistrial. The courthouse was crowded enough that spectators were sent to an overflow room. Tr. Mistrial; NPR, 4 Sept 2026
- 4 Sept 2026 Decided somewhere else: by a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, on papers filed inside the hour. The trial courtroom waited.
- 29 Sept 2026 Plymouth Superior Court, before Judge Sullivan. The first hearing after the mistrial. Only the Rule 25 motion was argued. Patriot Ledger photographs, 29 Sept 2026
Terms
Plain English
Words this page uses because the court uses them. Nothing here is special to this case.
The paperwork
- Docket
- The court’s numbered list of everything filed in a case. Entry 42 is the forty-second thing filed.
- Indictment
- The formal charge that starts a felony case in the Superior Court. It replaces the complaint the district court began with.
- Grand jury
- A jury that decides only whether there is enough evidence to charge someone, not whether they are guilty. It hears one side.
- Transcript
- The word-for-word record of a proceeding. A court reporter’s transcript is cited by page and line; a transcript of a televised proceeding, as here, has no line numbers and is cited by day.
- Exhibit
- A document, object or record put in evidence. This trial had roughly three hundred.
- Under seal
- Filed with the court but kept off the public record. Both sides and the judge can read it; nobody else can. Material is unsealed when that is lifted, as the search warrants were in October 2023.
- Impounded
- Withheld from public inspection by order. The juror list in this case was impounded indefinitely after the trial.
- Affidavit
- A sworn written statement. A search warrant affidavit is the officer’s account of why there is reason to search. It is not evidence at trial.
How a case moves
- Arraignment
- The hearing where the charges are read and the defendant pleads. It happens once in the district court and again after indictment.
- Motion
- A formal request that the court do something. The other side files an opposition; the moving side may then file a reply.
- Stipulate
- To agree formally that something is true so it need not be proved. The other side does not have to accept the offer, and here it did not.
- In camera
- Heard in private, in the judge’s chambers rather than in open court.
- Rebuttal
- Evidence one side puts in to answer the other’s case, after that case has closed. It cannot open new ground.
- Interlocutory appeal
- An appeal taken in the middle of a case rather than at the end of it. They are rare, and usually urgent.
- Under advisement
- Argued, but not yet decided. The judge will rule later.
The ones that can end it
- Mistrial
- A trial ended without a verdict. It decides nothing: the charges stay live and the case can, in principle, be tried again.
- Hung jury
- A jury that cannot reach the required unanimity. Eleven to one is not a verdict, and is worth no more than nothing to one.
- Tuey-Rodriguez charge
- What a Massachusetts judge tells a deadlocked jury: reconsider, but surrender no conscientiously held belief. Elsewhere it is called an Allen charge, or a dynamite charge.
- Rule 25
- A motion asking the judge to enter a finding of not guilty because no rational juror could convict on the evidence. It is about legal sufficiency, not about whether this jury was persuaded.
- Double jeopardy
- The rule against being tried twice for the same offence. A mistrial usually does not trigger it, which is why it has to be argued.
- Manifest necessity
- The standard a judge must meet to end a trial without a verdict over the defendant’s objection. If it was not met, a second trial is barred.
The test this case turned on
- Burden
- Which side has to prove a thing. If they do not, they lose that point, even if the other side proves nothing either.
- Beyond a reasonable doubt
- The criminal standard, and the highest one the law uses. It is not proof beyond all possible doubt.
- Criminal responsibility
- Whether the defendant can be held answerable at all. In Massachusetts the Commonwealth must prove she was responsible, beyond a reasonable doubt. The defendant proves nothing.
- Mental disease or defect
- A legal term, not a medical one. It need not match any formal diagnosis, and a jury decides whether there was one.
- Substantial capacity
- The second limb. Even with a mental disease or defect, a person is responsible if she could both appreciate that what she was doing was wrong and conform her conduct to the law. Losing either is enough.
- Appreciate
- To understand, rather than merely to know. Knowing an act is illegal is not the same as grasping what that means.
- Not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility
- Often shortened to NGI. It is not an acquittal in effect: it ordinarily leads to a petition to commit, and commitment is reviewed at intervals and renewable without limit.
- Postpartum psychosis
- A rare and serious illness arising after childbirth. It is a clinical term and carries no legal consequence by itself — the legal test is the one above.