Lindsay Clancy appeared in court Thursday in advance of her murder trial as Judge William F. Sullivan said prosecutors could show jurors autopsy photos of her three slain children. The judge also took under advisement whether jurors can hear audio of Patrick Clancy's 911 call.
The hearing matters because it could shape how much of the most graphic evidence reaches jurors when the case goes to trial July 20 in Plymouth Superior Court. Prosecutors want the photos and the emergency call to help tell the story of what happened in the Duxbury home where Clancy is accused of killing Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months.
Sullivan granted the request for the autopsy images, but only subject to the specific photographs, and said there will likely be a sidebar discussion at trial over which photos can be admitted. He said he will listen to the 911 recording to decide whether all of it should be played or only portions, leaving one of the central pieces of evidence still unsettled less than a month before opening statements.
Prosecutors say Clancy killed the children with exercise bands on Jan. 24, 2023, after sending Patrick Clancy to get takeout for the family. They also say she cut her wrists and neck and leapt from a second-story window in a failed attempt to end her own life. Clancy sat next to her lawyer, Kevin J. Reddington, in her wheelchair during the hearing and remains held at Tewksbury Hospital, paralyzed from the waist down.
That defense is expected to be a fight over intent, not just facts. Clancy has pleaded not guilty to three counts each of murder and strangulation or suffocation, and Reddington has said he will assert what is commonly known as an insanity defense, saying she was overmedicated on 13 different drugs and that the regimen led to homicidal ideation and suicidal ideation.
The 911 call is likely to be heard by jurors in some form because it ties the case to the moments after the killings. Jennifer Sprague said Patrick Clancy called 911 when he found the defendant in the backyard on the ground, and dispatchers told him to apply pressure to her wounds. He replied, 'they're not bleeding, I don't need to do that,' and prosecutors said he later screamed, 'She killed the kids!' after discovering the children in the cellar.
The next hearing is scheduled for July 13, and it may settle the part of the case still hanging over both sides: exactly which autopsy photos and which parts of the 911 call jurors will ultimately see and hear when the trial begins July 20.
