PLYMOUTH, Mass. (Court TV) — A judge has denied a request to split Lindsay Clancy‘s upcoming murder trial into two parts, meaning it will proceed with a single phase this summer.
Lindsay Clancy appears in court for a pretrial hearing on Feb. 20, 2026. (Court TV)
Clancy, 35, is charged with three counts of murder and three counts of strangulation or suffocation in the deaths of her three young children. Prosecutors say she used exercise bands to kill her daughter, 5, and her sons, ages 3 years and 7 months, before jumping out of a window at the family’s Duxbury home.
Clancy, who has been hospitalized since the incident, has claimed through her attorney that she was suffering from psychosis at the time of the murders.
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Ahead of Clancy’s trial, her attorney sought to have the proceeding split into two parts, with the first phase focused on criminal liability and the second on criminal responsibility. As Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, explained, during the first half of the trial, the prosecution would have to prove Clancy is guilty of the crimes beyond a reasonable doubt. The second half would focus on whether the prosecution could prove that she was not suffering from a mental disease or defect at the time.
After weighing the issue for several weeks, Judge William Sullivan denied the defense’s motion. “It would be nearly impossible to divide the evidence cleanly between the two phases as the defendant proposes,” Sullivan wrote in his order. “Many of the same witnesses would be called to testify during both phases of trial, likely involving duplicative issues. Importantly the information conveyed by counsel regarding trial planning has indicated lengthy and extensive expert testimony. Having witnesses provide the same testimony for, at best, marginally different purposes for each proposed phase does not further the interests of judicial economy.”
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Addressing the defense’s concern that Clancy’s statements to court psychiatrists will be used against her at trial, Sullivan said that any statements made pursuant to those exams will only be admissible as rebuttal evidence after her defense puts the issue of her criminal responsibility before the jury.
Clancy is scheduled to sit for another psychiatric evaluation next month. The parties are due back in May to discuss those results ahead of the trial, scheduled to begin in July.
