Trials
Sullivan denied Clancy's bid for a required not-guilty finding. A sufficiency ruling is not a verdict.
On Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, Judge William Sullivan rejected a defense request for a required finding of not guilty in Lindsay Clancy's murder case in Plymouth Superior Court. The ruling keeps the charges before a factfinder.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
A denied request for a required finding of not guilty is a sufficiency ruling that keeps the case alive for a factfinder. It is not a guilty verdict, and it is not a dismissal. On Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, Judge William Sullivan ruled that prosecutors had offered enough physical and circumstantial evidence for a rational jury to find the elements of murder beyond a reasonable doubt, and that dueling expert testimony on psychosis and criminal responsibility is for a jury to weigh.
Judge William Sullivan rejected the defense request in a written ruling Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, in Plymouth Superior Court in Massachusetts. WBUR, ABC News, People, and Boston 25 News reported the denial. Sullivan found that prosecutors had presented enough physical and circumstantial evidence for a rational jury to find the elements of murder beyond a reasonable doubt. He also held that competing expert testimony on psychosis and criminal responsibility is for a jury to weigh, not a reason to take the case from the factfinder.
Clancy is charged in the 2023 deaths of her three children in Duxbury. The first trial ended in a mistrial on Sept. 4 after jurors could not unanimously decide criminal responsibility. Thursday's order answers a sufficiency question left open after that hung result. It does not enter a verdict.
A separate defense motion to dismiss remains pending. The next hearing is Nov. 2. Prosecutors are still evaluating whether to retry the case. The Thursday ruling did not order a retrial, and it did not resolve the pending dismissal motion. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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