PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Lindsay Clancy’s defense attorney said Wednesday he will ask a judge to throw out the murder case and bar a retrial, citing double jeopardy after last week’s mistrial.

Kevin Reddington told CBS Mornings on Sept. 9, 2026, that he will present a motion to dismiss at a Sept. 29 status hearing before Superior Court Judge William Sullivan. The motion, he said, rests on the claim that the mistrial lacked “manifest necessity.”

“It will be a motion to dismiss based on what’s called double jeopardy grounds, because there’s no … manifest necessity,” Reddington said. “You have to have a manifest necessity to declare a mistrial for obvious reasons — the invested time that the jurors put into it, the court, the staff, the defendant, the prosecution, everybody.”

Clancy, 36, is charged with murdering her children — Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months — in their Duxbury home on Jan. 24, 2023. She has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, with the defense pointing to postpartum psychosis and overmedication. Prosecutors argued she planned the killings and knew right from wrong. The jury deadlocked after more than seven days of deliberations; Sullivan declared a mistrial on Sept. 4.

The fight centers on a single holdout. On Sept. 3 the foreperson sent a note saying one juror had “made statements acknowledging doubt but refuses to apply it to the verdict as the law states,” Reddington recounted in court. Sullivan denied Reddington’s bid to remove that juror and a later request for further questioning. Jurors who spoke publicly this week, including an interview aired Tuesday, described an 11–1 split and emotional deliberations. Our earlier piece covered the foreperson’s account.

CBS News legal contributor Caroline Polisi called the planned motion “huge news” and also a “long-shot,” noting that mistrials usually leave prosecutors free to recharge. “He’s making a motion based on double jeopardy, based on this one juror who, apparently, had reasonable doubt but refused to apply his conscience to the law,” she said. “If he wins that motion, she would go free.”

Plymouth District Attorney Tim Cruz has not said whether he will retry the case. Reddington said he does not want another trial and would not agree to any plea that puts Clancy “a day in jail.” He said Clancy is “not well,” remains in psychiatric care at Tewksbury, and that he still hopes Trump’s earlier comments about the case might pressure Cruz toward a resolution — even while acknowledging a presidential pardon cannot erase state charges.

Sources