Judge to tell jury they can consider manslaughter in Lindsay Clancy child murder case

Judge William Sullivan told a Plymouth, Mass. courtroom on Wednesday that jurors adjudicating the Lindsay Clancy murder case will be able to consider the charge of manslaughter should they not believe that the prosecution has met the burden of proof for first degree murder. Both prosecutors and defense have rested their case and closing arguments will begin on Thursday morning.

"I am gonna give a manslaughter instruction in line with basically what's on page 8. I am not going to give a Bowden instruction," Sullivan said. A Bowden instruction would allow the jury to consider police errors and mistakes when delivering their verdict.

85 witnesses testified in the case including many medical professionals who spoke to her mental state at the time of the killings and afterward. Clancy has said that she heard voices instructing her to kill her children then herself. At issue is whether she planned those murders of her children or was spontaneous in her actions, not whether or not she took their lives.

Defense and prosecution each will have an hour for closing arguments on Thursday after which Sullivan will deliver instructions to the jury as to the laws and interpretations of that law that are at play. Jury could begin deliberations as soon as 12 pm on Thursday.

Prosecutors, the jury will be told, must have been able to provide beyond a reasonable doubt that Clancy was "criminally responsible at the time the alleged crime was committed." The defense sought to argue throughout the trial that Clancy was not criminally responsible because she was mentally deficient or insane at the time of the murders. 

Sullivan will tell jurors that if they believe the defendant "lacks the substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality or wrongfulness of [her] conduct or to conform [her] conduct to the requirements of the law" then they can rule in Clancy's favor.

Clancy killed her three children on January 24, 2023. She asked her husband to run errands, including picking up medication for one of the children and take-out for dinner. After he left the house, she took the children one by one to the basement and killed them by wrapping exercise bands around their necks. Then she jumped out the window of her bedroom and left herself paralyzed.

There has been an outpouring of support for Clancy from women who claim to relate to what she was going through when she undertook the murders. A fundraiser for Clancy's parents has raised over $1 million.