Kevin Reddington, the defense lawyer for Lindsay Clancy, directly asked President Trump to consider a pardon on Tuesday morning. The request came during an interview on “Good Morning America” shortly after a judge declared a mistrial in Clancy’s murder case last Friday. Reddington told the host, “Mr. President, I would hope that you would consider this young lady – the type of person she is and what she’s been through – and consider a pardon,” per reports.
The lawyer described his client as “a wonderful, wonderful person” despite the grim charges she faces. Clancy is accused of killing her three young children: Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and baby Callan, 8 months. Reddington noted that President Trump had previously “felt compelled to speak out about this case,” which prompted the lawyer to make his appeal.
The President had earlier stated that Clancy would have to pay a price for her actions. Trump told reporters last week, “Look, she did a horrible, horrible thing. Can’t be worse. But you’ll find out what the price to pay is. There’ll be a price. It’s going to be [a] mental institution or jail or something,” according to reports.
Reddington also addressed the jury’s split decision that led to the mistrial. He said he respected the right of the lone holdout juror to maintain their position. “I would defend that individual’s right to be a holdout forever, that’s part of our judicial system. I respect that and I would certainly defend his right to do that,” he said. However, he expressed frustration over a note from the jury forelady. The note indicated the holdout “had doubt but would not apply reasonable doubt” to his vote, a point Reddington said he objected to.
Clancy’s legal team is not stopping at the pardon request. Reddington plans to file a motion asking a Massachusetts judge to set aside the hung-jury outcome. This rare legal move would ask the judge to rule that Clancy is not criminally responsible for the deaths. Reddington is expected to argue for this motion at a hearing scheduled for September 29.
Boston lawyer Peter Elikann, who is not connected to the case, told the Post that such a motion is “rare to the extreme” to succeed. Elikann explained that most judges go through their entire careers without granting one of these motions.
While Clancy’s team fights for a new ruling, another mother in Illinois faces similar charges. Corie Walsh, 40, is accused of hanging her 2-year-old son, Barrett Walsh, at their home in Frankfort on September 1. Walsh has retained Andrea Lyon, the lawyer known as the “Angel of Death Row,” who previously defended Casey Anthony.
Lyon issued a statement calling the event a tragedy for the family. “It is also a tragedy in that Corie herself was experiencing a psychotic episode at the time this happened,” Lyon said in a statement provided to the New York Post.
Prosecutors claim Walsh was texting friends about the Clancy case just hours before her son was found dead. Witnesses said Walsh had become “very invested in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial” while jurors in Massachusetts were still deliberating. The neighbor who found the toddler’s body also found Walsh in a bathtub “actively harming herself” with a knife. Walsh asked why the neighbor had taken the knife as she was trying to kill herself, according to court documents.
Clancy admitted she strangled her children, and the jury deliberated for more than 38 hours over seven days before failing to reach a unanimous verdict. The panel included nine women and three men.
