Lindsay Clancy's Jury Just Got an Option the Prosecution Fought to Block

**Tony Brueski** (0:00)
This is Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski.

**Tony Brueski** (0:11)
Here we are towards the end of the Lindsay Clancy trial. Let's go over what happened on the final day of testimony. This is right before we get to closing arguments, and we are going to break all of the closing arguments down as well. Bob Mata is going to be with us. I'll be doing some monologuing about it. There's a lot to still talk about, but as we've been trying to document this case for you, day by day by day, here is our piece. Here is our report on what happened on Wednesday. It would have been the 26th of August of 2026 in this historic case, in case you're watching us in 2046 It's nice to get a little day by day account, not just the here's the summary of what happened over the whole trial 20 some years later. Kevin Reddington, he picked up a transcript on August 26 and read the prosecution's own opening statement back to the prosecution's own final witness. The words belong to ADA Shannon Buckingham, spoken to the jury on the first day of the trial. Lindsay Clancy made the selfish choice. Those are the words made the selfish choice to end herself and her children because she was tired of the life she was living. She manipulated health care providers. Quote, she quote, chose the alternate route. And she did get what she expected. Reddington asked Dr. Gregory Saathoff, an FBI forensic psychiatrist, the Commonwealth's last expert, whether he agreed with that characterization. Saathoff had just told the jury, Clancy acted deliberately and methodically. I think that statement that you read, Saathoff, told 12 jurors, really minimizes what she was going through. You're here to testify for the prosecution that made that very statement. But that's a good thing. That's a good thing. He's having his own opinion. That actually shows some honesty, some integrity, and not just I'm going to go along with whatever they say and anything you say, Mr. defense attorney, I'm just going to vehemently disagree with. That wasn't what happened here. The prosecution's final witness told the jury that the prosecution's own opening argument got Lindsay Clancy wrong. By the end of the day, the judge would give the jury an option. The prosecution fought to keep off the table. We'll get to that in a moment. The minimizer's line was devastating, but it doesn't erase what Saathoff had spent two days telling the jury. And the prosecution still got what it came for. Saathoff testified that Clancy appeared to have deliberately planned to end herself and her children, and was in control of her actions on January 24th, 23 She was able to drive a car that day. She communicated with her daughter's pediatrician about a prescription. She added a CVS error into Patrick's trip, lengthening the window she'd have alone with the children. Then she moved through the house and the basement in sequence. Clancy told Saathoff she took Dawson to the basement first and strangled him in Patrick's office. She went back upstairs, brought Cora to a different room in the basement, did the same thing to her, then back upstairs again for eight-month-old Callan, who she carried down and did that to him in the basement as well. Three children, three trips between floors, three separate rooms, and she moved through the sequence without stopping, without calling for help, without hesitating.
I mean, the horror of that.
I mean, it's devastating.
And I understand, hard to move beyond that. So our friend, Jennifer Coffendaffer, who we disagree on this case. And if you've been watching us and you've seen our debates back and forth, that's very evident. But we can still be friends and we can still have a healthy debate without wanting to kill each other.
She put a poll up and granted, it was to her audience. It was, but I said, because we were texting and I said, where do you think this is right now? Is this 50-50 in terms of the you guys being the grand po, the general public jury, if you will. And she said, I'm going to pull up. She said, put a poll up. And the last I checked it, and again, by the time you're watching this, there's probably a lot more people on the poll.
There was, she put several categories up. They're guilty, not guilty by, you know, reason of insanity. I don't care. It doesn't matter. I think, I think, I don't matter. I think it doesn't matter. I think was one of the options. I don't care. What's the third? And it doesn't matter at the end. And it doesn't matter. Got a lot of the votes.