Lindsay Clancy is accused of killing two of her young kids and injuring a third
A judge Friday granted a defense motion to have a forensic psychologist evaluate a Massachusetts mother accused of strangling her three children to death before she tried to kill herself by jumping out of a second-story window in her family’s Boston-area home, according to a media report.
The motion was granted in an emergency hearing as attorney Kevin Reddington said his client, Lindsay M. Clancy, 32, was overmedicated and should be evaluated by a forensic psychologist, Fox News reported.
Clancy, who was arrested last month, faces murder charges in the deaths of her daughter, Cora Clancy, 5, and son, Dawson Clancy, 3. It was unclear Friday whether she also faces a third murder charge in the death of her 7-month-old son, Callan Clancy, who succumbed to his injuries three days after the incident, officials said.
Neither Reddington nor a spokeswoman for the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office responded to requests for comment Friday.
The surprise announcement of Friday’s hearing came the same day that officials had scheduled her arraignment, set for Tuesday in Plymouth District Court. She will appear via Zoom from the hospital where she’s recovering, prosecutors said, according to CT Insider.
The hearing also came on the day Reddington spoke with the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe about his client’s alleged psychological state leading up to the deaths of her children.
Between October 2022 and January of this year, Lindsay Clancy was prescribed 13 different psychiatric medications, her attorney told the Globe. The effect of those drugs, and her fragile and emotional state after giving birth to her third child were turning her into a zombie, Reddington told the Herald.
“It’s overmedication, absolutely overmedication — possibly with a component of post-partum depression,” Reddington told the paper. “She had medical care and treatment on a regular basis. And her husband was very proactive in trying to protect her and help her with the doctors’ medication she was prescribed. They went through hell — and they didn’t come back.”
Reddington also told the paper he had hired a toxicologist to review the strength of the dosages, the number of dosages prescribed, and how the drugs might have interacted with one another.
“It’s absolutely staggering,” her attorney told the Herald, referring to the drug cocktails that he says, wrested impulse control away from his client. “She had homicidal and suicidal ideations. She was in a living hell and the husband did the best he could.”
Reddington sketched out what may likely become the foundation of her defense.
“The black-letter law definition of lack of criminal responsibility in Massachusetts says that if a person suffers from a mental disease or defect,” they can be found not guilty based on their mental status, he said to the Globe.
He emphasized that “if you have involuntary intoxication, that would be a defect” which could translate into a “lack of criminal responsibility.”
Reddington also took the Duxbury Chief of Police Michael Carbone to task over comments he made this week suggesting his client’s condition was improving daily, for which he apologized in comments to the Globe.
Reddington said his client can’t get out of bed and can’t walk.
“She’s not in good physical shape,” he told the paper. “She’s not in good emotional shape.”
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