Lindsay Clancy's Next Home Is Decided by WHAT?!

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This is The Big Breakdown, a long look back at some of the biggest stories we're covering for you at the Hidden Killers Podcast and True Crime Today. This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brueski and Robin Drake.

**Tony Brueski** (0:16)
Let's talk about not guilty. What could possibly happen there if this jury finds Lindsay Clancy not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility? She doesn't walk out of the courtroom. She goes somewhere else. And the question everybody in the audience is asking is what somewhere else actually means for the woman who's already paralyzed, already in a hospital and already on 24-hour S-watch. Under Massachusetts law, not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect verdict does not mean release. The court can order the defendant hospitalized for up to 40 days of observation. After that, the DA or hospital superintendent can petition for involuntary commitment. Eric Faddis, defense attorney and former prosecutor is here with myself and Robin Drake, retired FBI Special Agent, Chief of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program. So what happens in the courtroom, Eric, the moment the verdict is read, if it is not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect? What happens to Lindsay at that moment?

**Eric Faddis** (1:20)
Yeah, you know, Lindsay's not going home. She's not going home anytime soon. That's for darn sure.
Either way, regardless of what the jury comes out with. So, you know, her supporters who might be outside the courthouse, they're not going to see her. It's not going to be something like that. Instead, she's going to go through that 40-day commitment at a psychiatric facility. They're going to assess whether they're going to assess her dangerousness. And then after that, the DA can petition to continue the involuntary commitment. And that petition can be re-evaluated every year.
But it's also kind of an indefinite set into the psychiatric facility. So it could be forever. It could be a year and a half. It could be, could be, there's such a wide range in terms of what this might look like in the coming years for Lindsay Clancy.

**Tony Brueski** (2:11)
How much does this vary from state to state in as far as how they, they hold someone? Because just from experience and seeing other cases and just life, you know, psychiatric facilities, unless they're getting paid and your insurance is covering it, they don't necessarily want to keep you there, unless they have no choice but to keep you there by law.
How much or how willing, I guess, are facilities, and I guess it varies by facility, but state law too, to keep the person there. How often do you see folks, I mean, it's rare that anyone wins a defense of this sort of argument, but the ones that do, how often do they stay incarcerated or in a mental health facility indefinitely? I know Andrea Yates is still there because she wants to be. Different state, though, different set of laws. Is that the same sort of thing everywhere? Where if Lindsay Clancy is to say, keep me locked up here, I don't want to be out, that they would honor that? Or is it at some point, we think you're good enough to go? Because they do that all the time with 72-hour holds things of that nature, where people are not good to go. But guess what? Insurance ain't covering the bill anymore, so enjoy the paper bag and the bridge down by the river. What are your thoughts?

**Eric Faddis** (3:32)
Right.
We like to think that these determinations in terms of whether to let somebody out from a psychiatric facility after being found not guilty by resentment sanity are by the letter of the law. They're by the book. And hey, we look at these three things, and if they're met, we let them out. If they're not, we don't. The reality is much more complicated. There are other interests involved. There are funding interests to house a human being inside of a facility and make sure they're fed, and don't die, and things like that. Just like a normal prison, that costs tens of thousands per year, per person, and they have thousands or not, it's not more people in these facilities. So when we add into that, the level of care that might be required for somebody in Lindsay Clancy's situation, you better believe that facility might be looking at their books and they're like, gosh, we've got a funding issue, we've got monetary considerations here. Those things can creep into these determinations, whether it's talked about publicly or expressly or not.

**Robin Drake** (4:35)
So here are the numbers from Massachusetts, since I love looking at our numbers in between. So this is for all individuals, not just fill a side in cases like this for paternal, I mean, you know what I mean, for women that were convicted and not-