President Donald Trump weighed in on Lindsay Clancy’s triple murder trial moments after a Massachusetts judge declared a mistrial in the high-profile case.
“It’s a shame. It’s a horrible tragedy … It’s a terrible situation. Look, she did a horrible, horrible thing. Can’t be worse,” Trump, 80, told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, September 4.
He went on to offer his thoughts on a possible punishment for Clancy, 36, suggesting, “It’s going to be a mental institution or jail or something, but I guess they’re going to go through another trial. It’s too bad.”
While speaking to reporters, Trump said it had been “hard not to” follow updates on the case since it has been “on television so much” in recent weeks. He referred to the 2023 deaths of the Clancy children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months— as a “horrible tragedy” and a “terrible situation.”
Lindsay Clancy Is ‘Scared’ and ‘Nervous’ as Jury Deliberates in Murder Trial
On Friday, Judge William Sullivan was informed that the 12-person jury was hopelessly deadlocked on three counts of first-degree murder after days and more than 30 hours of deliberation. He allowed Clancy’s defense team one hour to file for an emergency stay from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court before a mistrial was formally declared.
“Intervention is necessary in this case to avoid an avoidable mistrial of a case that is so time and labor intensive and that has captured so much public attention. It is also necessary to preserve the Defendant’s right to a fair trial by unbiased jurors applying the law and to avoid violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments and Article 114, which makes mental illness a protected category,” defense lawyer Kevin Reddington wrote in an emergency motion to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. “A mistrial at this point is entirely avoidable, but only if the court does its job.”
The high court ultimately rejected Reddington’s appeal, leading Judge Sullivan to formally “declare that the jury is deadlocked” later on Friday.
“I’m going to declare a mistrial,” he confirmed before calling in the jury.
In his final comments to jurors, the judge referred to a key moment in World War II as setting a precedent for the controversial court case.
“I’m kind of a history buff and during World War II, Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of England when England pretty much stood against Nazi Germany alone,” Judge Sullivan told jurors. “So Churchill [often] had to talk to the citizens and let us brace for our duties. I always like that phrase, and I thought of that phrase when all of you were agreeing to be on this jury. You agreed to brace for that duty and each one of you knew how long the case was going to go, you knew how difficult the case was going to be to listen to, facts-wise. But still, you braced for that duty.”
He continued, “I watched every day, day after day, week after week, [and] all of you [were] performing that duty that you braced for. And I kind of wanted to let you know: I understand how hard everyone worked in this case. I understood you all gave everything you could and probably more than you thought you could … I just want to thank you so much. You should be proud of what you did. You braced for that duty. You performed that duty.”
Lindsay Clancy’s Supporters Have Sent Her Enough Letters to Fill 3 Boxes
Reddington told reporters outside the Plymouth County Superior Court on Friday that his client will “be ready” for a retrial if prosecutors choose to proceed with one.
“Judge Sullivan is indicating that we are looking at sometime in the fall,” he noted.
The defense strategy during the high-profile trial revolved around convincing the jury that Clancy should not be held criminally liable for her children’s deaths because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis. Prosecutors countered in closing arguments that Clancy “knew what she did was wrong,” adding that she was capable of choosing to “conform her behavior to the law and chose not to.”
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