By Stephen Simon
US President Donald Trump has rejected a request to pardon Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts woman accused of killing her three young children in January 2023.
Clancy, 36, is accused of strangling her five-year-old daughter, Cora, three-year-old son, Dawson, and eight-month-old son, Callan, at the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Her husband, Patrick Clancy, discovered the children after returning home.
The appeal for Trump’s intervention was made by Clancy’s defence lawyer, Kevin Reddington, following a mistrial in the case on September 4, 2026. The jury reportedly failed to reach a unanimous verdict, with 11 jurors said to have supported a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity and one opposing it.
Reddington had urged Trump to pardon his client, citing the defence’s argument that she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis when the children died. The defence maintains that the condition severely impaired her ability to understand or control her actions.
Trump, however, said the case was a state matter and indicated that he would not intervene. He described the deaths as a deeply tragic situation in which there was no real winner.
Under US law, the president’s pardon power generally applies to federal offences and does not extend to crimes prosecuted under state law. Any clemency in the Massachusetts case would therefore have to be handled through the state’s legal and clemency system.
Clancy has admitted strangling the three children, but her lawyers have argued that postpartum psychosis left her in a severely disturbed mental state. Prosecutors have challenged the extent of her impairment and maintained that she should be held criminally responsible.
The mistrial has not ended the case. Prosecutors are considering whether to seek a new trial, while Clancy’s defence has filed a motion seeking an acquittal that would prevent another prosecution. A judge is expected to hear the motion on September 29.
This version keeps the legal angle, mental-health defence and next court date, while removing repetition and making it read more like a newspaper report.
