The attorney for Lindsay Clancy made a public request to President Donald Trump in an interview with ABC News, Tuesday morning.
“Mr. President, I would hope that you would consider this young lady, the type of person she is, what she’s been through, and consider a pardon,” Defense Attorney Kevin Reddington said.
Despite the plea for a Trump pardon, the president only has authority to pardon federal offenses and this case wouldn’t qualify since it is a state-level criminal case in Massachusetts.
His comments come after the case against Clancy, who admitted to killing her three children, ended in a mistrial last week due to a hung jury.
Reddington told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he believes the jury was split 11 to one in his client’s favor. Had it been unanimous in her favor, Clancy would have been declared not guilty by reason of insanity.
When asked what he thought of people who view Clancy’s case as “plain evil,” Reddington said they don’t understand.
“Oh please,” he said. “It’s not evil. These people don’t understand. They don’t know what she went through. They didn’t see her text messages. They didn’t see her journal. They didn’t see the notes that she wrote. … They don’t know about the number of times that she reached out. She went to Women and Infants. She went to the suicide hotlines. She reached out to everybody and anybody that would listen to her and kept saying, ‘I am not good. I am not well, and it was ignored.’”
Clancy remains charged with murder, and the next court date is set for Sept. 29, when Judge William Sullivan has scheduled the parties to return to court to address what happens next.
The big question now is whether Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz retries her. He previously said after the mistrial that his office had not yet made that decision, but because the jury was hung, double jeopardy does not prevent prosecutors from putting Clancy before a new jury.
It is unclear how Trump will respond, or whether he will. When asked by reporters about the Clancy mistrial, Trump said, “It’s a shame. It’s a horrible tragedy.”
“I assume there’s going to be another trial,” he continued. “It’s a terrible situation. 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 mental institution or jail or something. But I guess they’re going to go through another trial. It’s too bad.”