The balancing act at the Lindsay Clancy trial
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Judge William F. Sullivan has a fragile path to stroll.
He’s presiding over the high-profile trial of Lindsay Clancy for the killings of her three youngsters. And he does so with the unenviable process of navigating between the public’s long-held proper to view court docket proceedings and the necessity to keep away from a circus that might upend them.
Clancy, of Duxbury, doesn’t deny she killed her youngsters, however is pleading not responsible beneath what’s generally often called the madness protection. Her lawyer maintains she shouldn’t be held criminally accountable as a result of she was so deep in the throes of postpartum melancholy and psychosis.
The case has drawn intense consideration for the unfathomable crime alleged, and in addition what it could highlight about the method the well being system treats ladies and, particularly, moms.
Harrowing listening
The trial is predicted to run so long as two months, and already Sullivan’s balancing act faces two tests. The first is predicted to return this morning, when the court docket will hear the 911 name that Clancy’s husband, Patrick Clancy, made when he arrived dwelling from getting taken out. He discovered his three youngsters strangled of their basement and his then-wife severely injured following a suicide try exterior the dwelling.
From prosecutors’ statements and court docket data, we all know the broad strokes: Patrick Clancy stayed on the cellphone as he first noticed Lindsay Clancy, after which nonetheless as he found his youngsters useless or dying. It might be harrowing listening to, if admissible proof that can give the jury extra details about what occurred that night time in January 2023.
So Sullivan is permitting it to be performed in court docket — however not livestreamed and extensively broadcast, as a lot of the remainder of the trial is. Only these current can hear it. The media can report on it, however not document it.
A managed crime scene
The second take a look at of stability is the jury’s viewing of the Clancys’ former dwelling, anticipated later in the week. On Tuesday, Sullivan deemed it to be restricted to legal professionals on each side, court docket employees, and the 18-person jury, six of whom might be designated as alternates when deliberations start.
Sullivan additionally ordered that Duxbury and State Police might be accountable for securing the space earlier than jurors arrive, and for holding unauthorized “third parties” off the premises throughout the listening to. He additionally determined jurors might be allowed “to visually inspect the outside of the property as well as . . . the basement, all rooms on the first floor, and all rooms on the second floor of the premises.”
They will not be permitted to “open closet doors, touch any items within the premises, or disturb items,” Sullivan wrote.
This can work. Two years in the past, I lined the first trial of Karen Read, the Mansfield girl who was tried twice and finally acquitted of the demise of her boyfriend, Boston Police officer John O’Keefe. That trial was, if something, much more intently watched and controversial than this one, pushed by claims of police corruption and a coverup.
A break in the circus
In spring 2023, these of us in the media cohort masking the Read trial adopted the jury as they had been sought to the scene of O’Keefe’s demise exterior a Canton dwelling. Police stored us — and a few of the non-media spectators who commonly attended the trial — down the road, in all probability a couple of hundred ft away as the jurors, attorneys, and even the choose milled about exterior the dwelling the place O’Keefe’s physique was discovered. A crowd watched from afar, nevertheless it did not intrude.
The trial was a circus, however the crime scene view went nice.
Shelley Murphy and Travis Andersen of Globe employees contributed to this report.
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This publication was edited by David Beard and produced by Ryan Orlecki. Today’s tune is “Draw the Line‚” by some native band that may’t get into the Fenway Music Hall of Fame.
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Sean Cotter might be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. observe him @cotterreporter.
