The lawyer of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts woman accused of killing her three young children, has said he hopes Donald Trump will pardon his client after her trial recently ended with a deadlocked jury.
Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, made the appeal on a televised interview on the ABC show Good Morning America on Tuesday. The plea comes to Trump after a judge on Friday declared a mistrial after the jury in the Clancy case could not reach a unanimous verdict on whether she was guilty or not guilty.
Reddington said he hoped that the president would “consider a pardon” for Clancy given “the type of person she is” and “what she has been through”.
“Mr President, I would hope that you would consider this young lady,” said Reddington, who also alluded to how Trump on Friday called the case a “tragedy”.
Trump’s pardon powers are applicable in the federal justice system in the US, and Clancy was tried in Massachusetts’ state criminal justice system.
But in June in Colorado, Tina Peters – the former clerk convicted in state court of participating in a plot to chase election conspiracy theories boosted by Trump – was released early from a nine-year prison after Democratic governor Jared Polis succumbed to pressure to do so from the Republican president.
Clancy, who is 36, was charged with fatally strangling her three children – Cora, five; Dawson, three; and Callan, eight months old – in their Duxbury, Massachusetts, home in January 2023. She had also thrown herself out of her bedroom window in an apparent suicide attempt which left her paralyzed.
Prosecutors argued that Clancy was aware of her actions and had “coldly and efficiently executed” the children after planning to do so, including ensuring her husband was out of the house.
But her defense, led by Reddington, claimed that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis which compelled her to carry out the killings and therefore was not legally culpable.
During the trial, Reddington called forensic psychiatrist Dr Phillip Resnick to testify that Clancy had “severe depression” and a history of anxiety, which increased after the birth of her children to the point that she “felt she couldn’t function”.
“At the time of the crime … Ms Clancy was frankly psychotic,” Resnick said. “She was clearly psychotic on that day.”
Jurors in Plymouth state court spent more than 38 hours in deliberations over the charges, which sparked a broader national debate over maternal mental health issues that can occur postpartum.
Ultimately, Reddington has said the 12-person jury, made up of nine women and three men, was split 11 to one in favor of a not guilty verdict. The lack of a unanimous verdict led to the judge declaring a mistrial, opening the way for another trial.
Trump was asked about the trial by reporters on Friday, with the president calling the case “a shame” and a “horrible tragedy”.
“I think the judge has said it’s going to be a mistrial, so there’s going to be another trial,” he said. “It’s a terrible situation. Look, she did a horrible, horrible thing.
“Can’t be worse. But you’ll find out what the price to pay is. There’ll be a price. It’s going to be mental institution or jail or something, but I guess they’re going to go through another trial.”
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In the US, the national maternal mental health hotline is 1-833-852-6262. In the UK, the Pandas foundation offers support via Whatsapp on 07903 508334. In Australia, the national maternal and perinatal mental health hotline is 1300 726 306