“You are basically relieving the Commonwealth of its burden to prove certain facts. Is that what you want to do?” the judge asked.
“Yes, your honor,” Clancy said again.
Clancy — who wore a pink short-sleeve blouse and a headband — answered numerous other similar questions from the judge.
6 Clancy answered a series of questions to confirm that she was agreeing to certain facts to help speed up her grueling murder trial.AP
While she has been seen throughout the case leaning over and speaking to Reddington, it was the first time she spoke on the record in court since the Plymouth, Mass., trial kicked off last week.
After, Reddington said “we have not contested the government’s case” in order to avoid them “having to bring in dozens of witnesses to prove chain of custody of bloods, fluids and all of that.”
The defense attorney has previously said that Clancy wouldn’t contest at trial that she killed her children, and would instead ask the jury to find her not guilty by reason of insanity on the grounds she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis, partly caused by being misdiagnosed and overmedicated.
6 Clancy is accused of strangling her three young kids.Plymouth Superior Court
The stipulation could significantly shorten the trial as many witnesses will no longer be required to testify to prove basic details about key pieces of evidence.
However, Reddington appeared to grow frustrated throughout the day Tuesday after prosecutors continued to call witnesses to testify about facts he said Clancy already agreed to. And he objected to at least one of the witnesses, but Sullivan allowed the testimony to continue, finding it provided the jury with context.
After a second toxicologist was called to testify about the prescription drugs found in Clancy’s blood and urine, Reddington suggested it was unnecessary.
“Basically, as the court knows, we agree to this, we stipulate to all of this,” Reddington said as he stood up to cross-examine toxicologist Lisa Yelle.
He said the defense agreed to “the blood, the chain of custody, the testing.”
6 After the killings, Clancy tried to kill herself by cutting her wrists and neck and jumping out of a second-story window. She is now partially paralyzed.AP
At one point, Reddington also snapped at Massachusetts State Trooper Jonathan O’Loughlin after he was asked dozens of questions about the crime scene only to admit to the jury he was unable to collect any fingerprints from a knife, cell phone and exercise bands taken from Clancy’s Duxbury home.
“You could have just said that!” the defense attorney barked.
Sullivan then sustained an objection from the prosecutors about his comment.
In all, eight minor witnesses were called to the witness stand Tuesday: a surgeon who treated Clancy, two cops who were involved with evidence collection and five forensic scientists.
6 Her lawyer, Kevin Reddington, wants a jury to find her not guilty by reason of insanity on the grounds she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis.Plymouth Superior Court
Almost every prior day of trial has featured graphic, troubling and emotional testimony that has brought Clancy to tears, on at least three days.
The case will come down to what jurors believes about Clancy’s mental state and whether they agree with prosecutors that she made a cold and calculated decision to kill the kids or whether they believe she carried out the heinous acts during a mental break, as the defense claims.
Clancy — a former labor and delivery nurse — killed Cora, 5, Dawson, 3 and 8-month-old Callan on Jan. 24, 2023, and then immediately after slit her wrists and neck and threw herself out of a second-story window of her home. The jump caused her to rupture her spine and she is now partially paralyzed.
She has been appearing in court in a wheelchair.
In the four months leading up to the killings, Clancy had seen five doctors for postpartum and had been prescribed 15 drugs. She also landed in the hospital twice for suicidal thoughts during that time, according to testimony.
And she was on six psychiatric medications at the time of the murders, jurors learned from testimony and evidence.
6 Prosecutors claim Clancy was cold and calculating when she decided to strangle her three kids with exercise bands.AP
Clancy kept a journal that meticulously noted the dosage of the medications she took and her moods when she took them, such as having horrible, intrusive and suicidal thoughts, according to images of the journal entries.
She also kept a separate diary in which she described being wracked with guilt about choosing to stop breastfeeding Callan and for choosing to sleep train him, according to the entries her lawyer read out in court during testimony Monday.
“Hearing him cry for one-plus hours and not intervening just about killed me,” Clancy wrote, adding that she had told her husband, Patrick, “I want to die,” while Callan was crying.
She also wrote on Nov. 18, 2022: “It’s like I’m so desperate to get a mental break from taking care of everyone that my mind is trying to make something physically wrong with me.”
