PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Days after Lindsay Clancy’s triple-murder trial ended in a hung-jury mistrial, her defense attorney said he is open to talking with Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz about a plea agreement that would avert a second trial — while drawing a hard line against any deal that puts her in jail.

In a Wednesday interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, attorney Kevin Reddington said: “I want to hear what Tim has to say.” A day earlier, on ABC’s Good Morning America, he said he hoped Cruz would reconsider after sitting through the evidence. CNN’s Nicki Brown reported the plea-path analysis Thursday morning, Sept. 10, 2026.

Reddington was clear on the limits. “I would not ever agree that she do any time in jail,” he told Cooper. Clancy, he said, needs mental-health treatment, physicians, and medication — not a cell.

Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial Friday, Sept. 4, after more than 38 hours of deliberations. Jurors deadlocked 11–1; one holdout blocked a finding of not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility. Clancy admitted strangling her children — Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months — in their Duxbury home on Jan. 24, 2023. She pleaded not guilty to three first-degree murder counts, arguing postpartum psychosis left her not criminally responsible. After a suicide attempt she is partially paralyzed and held at Tewksbury State Hospital.

Cruz undecided; family pain; election year

Cruz has not decided whether to retry the case. After the mistrial he said his office remains focused on justice for the children: “We’re here at this courthouse today because those children are not.” CNN, citing affiliate WCVB, noted Cruz is in an election year but is reportedly running unopposed.

Patrick Clancy’s attorney said the prospect of another trial is “extraordinarily painful” for Patrick, his family, and others close to the case. A status hearing remains set for Sept. 29, when Reddington has also said he will seek dismissal on double-jeopardy grounds — a separate track from any plea talks, and one Insanity Developing covered earlier this week.

Experts: DA holds the cards

Massachusetts lawyers and legal academics who spoke to CNN were skeptical a deal will land. Northeastern University’s Daniel Medwed said the core question is whether justice would be served by another prosecution, and that Cruz’s office will struggle with that calculus. Defense attorney Janice Bassil said Cruz currently “holds all the cards.” Boston defense attorney Elyse Hershon said she does not see the hard-charging prosecutor “coming down and backing off,” especially in an election year and after Cruz doubled down that first-degree murder charges were “warranted and appropriate.”

A plea to a lesser charge would be a “walk down” for the district attorney, Hershon said; Bassil agreed she does not see Cruz compromising. Experts also doubted a joint not-guilty-by-lack-of-criminal-responsibility agreement — the outcome prosecutors fought for weeks — and noted typical plea bargains involve jail or probation, not a guaranteed psychiatric placement.

What Sept. 10 adds is not a deal, but Reddington’s public openness and Cruz’s silence on terms. The next court date that matters is still Sept. 29.

Sources