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Prosecutors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial are coming across as “tone deaf” to how jurors likely feel about the case, a criminal defense attorney says.
Lindsay Clancy, 36, faces three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children â Cora, Dawson and Callan, all under the age of 6 â who were found strangled at the family’s Duxbury, Massachusetts home in 2023. Prosecutors concluded their case Monday morning, and Clancy’s defense attorney has since begun presenting arguments, asserting that she was in the grip of postpartum psychosis when she killed her children.
Donna Rotunno, a criminal defense attorney, told Fox News Digital she feels that prosecutors are being “tone deaf” to the way jurors are feeling about the murder trial, citing specific examples.
One of the main examples Rotunno cited was a moment from Tuesday, when Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham asked Susan Clancy, Lindsay’s mother-in-law and a Catholic, if she knew murder was a “mortal sin.”
Susan Clancy offered no response to the question, prompting Judge William Sullivan to immediately call a sidebar and order the remark stricken from the record.
Rotunnno said the prosecution has so far come across as “uncaring and snarky.”
“I understand that your job is to prosecute this murder case and you view this as a first-degree murder,” Rotunno said, “but in sort of ignoring the true emotion that this type of a case invokes, and by ignoring it, you are really tone deaf as to the way the jurors feel.”
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Rotunno also pointed to the testimony of Lindsay Clancy’s grandparents, particularly her mother-in-law, Susan Clancy, as a pivotal moment for the jury. She noted that Susan Clancy appeared deeply sympathetic to what Lindsay Clancy was going through. If the individual with the most reason to grieve the children’s deaths is standing behind Lindsay Clancy, Rotunno argued jurors will find it hard to see her as a cold-hearted murderer.
Kevin Reddington, Lindsay Clancy’s defense attorney, asked Dr. Paul Zeizel, a clinical forensic psychologist, about the numerous times the mother reached out for help, and was turned away.
LINDSAY CLANCY DESCRIBED A MALE VOICE ORDERING HER TO KILL HER CHILDREN AND KILL HERSELF: TESTIMONY
“She felt that her brain was damaged. She felt that she should kill herself. And she’s never going to get any better,” Zeizel said on Wednesday, explaining why Lindsay Clancy felt she needed to get help.
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