Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer asked Judge William Sullivan on Monday to investigate Michael Desronvil, the 48-year-old father who was the only juror to vote to convict her of murdering her three children. The filing, if it leads anywhere, could complicate how the court handles the mistrial and how soon the case moves toward a retrial.
The request came as interest in the case has surged again, with the next court date set for Sept. 29 in Plymouth Superior Court. Reddington is expected to ask then that the charges be dropped, while Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz is also expected to say whether Clancy will face a retrial. Clancy faces three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Callan, Cora and Dawson, who were 8 months old, 5 years old and 3 years old, respectively.
Reddington said Desronvil may have filled out jury forms inaccurately or answered selection questions wrongly, and he also wants the court to examine allegations tied to domestic violence and cellphone use during deliberations. Judge William Sullivan has already agreed to impound jury information and questionnaires filed before the trial, a step that signals the court is treating the issue as sensitive even though he has not ruled on the motion.
That motion lands in a case already marked by an unusual split. Eleven jurors voted for Clancy to be found not guilty because of postpartum psychosis, leaving Desronvil alone in voting guilty. The defense position at trial was built around that same diagnosis, and the mistrial that followed turned on a jury that could not bridge the gap between that explanation and the prosecution’s case.
The broader timeline has only sharpened the stakes. Clancy strangled the children on Jan. 24, 2023, while Patrick Clancy was out picking up food and running errands, then tried to kill herself by slitting her wrists and neck and jumping from a second-story window at the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, south of Boston. The fall left her paralysed, and she appeared in court in a wheelchair throughout her six-week trial.
Patrick Clancy said in a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday night that he believed his ex-wife was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she killed their children. That comment did not change the legal calendar, but it underlined how much of this case still turns on the same question now facing the judge: whether the juror challenge is enough to alter what comes next on Sept. 29.
