@meghannmcuniff: The judge in Lindsay Clancy's trial today ruled that jurors will be instructed that they can consider manslaughter as a lesser included charge to murder when deciding if Clancy is criminally responsible for killing her children. They'll also consider second-degree murder. Judge William Sullivan finalized the instructions in a 33-minute charge conference this afternoon (Wednesday, August 26, day 21) after testimony ended and the jury left for the day. He won't instruct the jury about involuntary intoxication, but the instructions already discuss "the ability to consider evidence from either a mental impairment or consumption of prescription drugs." The manslaughter instruction will not differentiate between voluntary and involuntary. Prosecutors objected to manslaughter and pointed to a previous case that found "that an unlawful battery was quite likely to endanger life, and hence could not be classified as involuntary manslaughter." "Where it's a wanton and reckless conduct theory, I think that [case law] is right on point to say that in situations like this, where we have the strangling of the individuals, of the babies, the kids, the unlawful battery is quite likely to endanger life, ... that it shouldn't be an instruction for involuntary manslaughter," said Shanan Buckingham, an assistant district attorney in Plymouth County, Massachusetts. Defense attorney Kevin Reddington said jurors may not believe Clancy was psychotic, but they could find "clearly she was overmedicated or had medications that she was involved with, plus her postpartum depression, that would then justify them to say it reduces her ability to think, to react, to know as it relates to malice." Judge Sullivan declined to instruct the jury that they can consider flaws or gaps in the investigation, which is called a Bowden instruction because it stems from the 1980 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court case Commonwealth v. Horace Bowden. "The defendant is free to argue that any deficiencies that he feels that are in the investigation certainly free to argue." Sullivan said. Jurors are to return to Sullivan's courtroom in Plymouth County Superior Court at 9 a.m. EST on Thursday (August 27, day 22) for instruction and closing argument.

Meghann Cuniff

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Thursday 27 August 2026 01:26:22 GMT