Lindsay Clancy defense attorney argues lack of evidence
Lindsay Clancy’s defense attorney argued during a September 29, 2026, preliminary hearing in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, that there is no evidence his client admitted to killing her three children, marking a shift from earlier proceedings where the defense focused primarily on a postpartum psychosis defense.
The high-profile murder case stems from January 2023, when Lindsay Clancy, then 33, was accused of strangling her three children in the basement of their Duxbury home using exercise resistance bands. Her initial trial earlier in September ended in a mistrial after a 12-person jury deadlocked following seven days of deliberations in Plymouth Superior Court.
Defense Shifts Strategy to Question Sufficiency of Evidence
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington challenged the prosecution’s case directly before Judge William Sullivan during the September 29 hearing, which was convened to weigh motions ahead of a potential retrial. Reddington asserted that the initial police investigation was flawed and relied on premature assumptions of guilt.
“Where is the evidence that she committed these acts?” Reddington asked the court, according to Agence France-Presse reporting cited by Ouest-France. He contended that the case rests entirely on speculation and pointed to the Latimore v. Massachusetts standard from 1979, which governs the sufficiency of evidence required to sustain a criminal charge.
During the initial trial, the defense did not contest that Lindsay Clancy caused the deaths of her children, instead arguing that she lacked criminal responsibility due to postpartum psychosis. Reddington’s recent filings seek to avoid a retrial entirely, with a follow-up hearing scheduled for November 2 to review the defense motions.
Prosecution Cites DNA and Hospital Statements
Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham pushed back against the defense assertions, maintaining that the state possesses substantial evidence to support three counts of first-degree murder. Buckingham noted that this marked the first time the defense formally contested the sufficiency of the evidence across the three murder charges.
According to the prosecution’s filings and courtroom presentations, forensic testing recovered Lindsay Clancy’s DNA on the exercise bands used in the strangulations. Prosecutors also pointed to statements made while she was hospitalized following a suicide attempt after the incident.
The Plymouth County District Attorney’s office, led by District Attorney Timothy Cruz, stated outside the courthouse that prosecutors are conducting a thorough review to determine whether to proceed with a new trial.