Politics
Accused Killer's Lawyer Writes Trump a Letter Asking Him to Handle It
By BSN Staff, . BSN Network. Satire.
PLYMOUTH, Mass. -- Following a mistrial in the case of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of strangling her three children in January 2023, defense attorney Kevin Reddington has announced a legal strategy that legal analysts are describing as "ambitious," "creative," and "a thing that is happening."
Reddington, a veteran defense attorney who has presumably seen a courtroom before, appeared in interviews this week to outline his post-mistrial plan: convince prosecutors to pursue psychiatric treatment over prison, and, separately, write a letter to President Donald Trump asking him to weigh in on a state criminal case over which he has no jurisdiction.
The Trump component has drawn the most attention, which is saying something, because the other component involves a woman who was convicted of nothing and also acquitted of nothing because a jury could not agree on what to do, which is its own sentence worth reading twice.
"I believe the president has compassion," Reddington told reporters, with the confidence of a man who has clearly never watched the news.
Trump, for his part, has not responded publicly, which puts him in roughly the same position as the Plymouth County District Attorney's office, the Massachusetts court system, and the entire concept of appellate procedure.
Clancy, who was paralyzed from the waist down at the time of her arrest after jumping from a window during the same incident, has maintained through her defense that she was suffering from a severe postpartum psychiatric crisis so profound she did not understand what she was doing. The prosecution argued she knew exactly what she was doing. The jury argued for days and then gave up, which is the legal system working as designed.
Reddington's position is that incarcerating a woman who is both paralyzed and severely mentally ill serves no one. This is a defensible position. What is less defensible, legally speaking, is the mechanism he has chosen to advance it, which is mailing a letter to a man who runs the federal government and has approximately zero authority over Plymouth County Superior Court.
"There's a process for this," said one former Massachusetts prosecutor who asked not to be named because he did not want to be associated with any of this. "It involves motions, hearings, appeals. It does not typically involve the White House postal address."
Reddington has also appealed directly to DA Timothy Cruz to exercise prosecutorial discretion and redirect Clancy toward a treatment facility rather than a second trial. Cruz has not publicly indicated he intends to do this, which Reddington appears to be treating as a negotiating position rather than an answer.
Legal observers note that the strategy, taken as a whole, is less a legal argument than a media campaign conducted in the vocabulary of a legal argument. Reddington is not wrong that public pressure has occasionally influenced prosecutorial decisions. He is perhaps optimistic that public pressure delivered via presidential letter-writing will do so here.
A spokesperson for the Plymouth DA's office confirmed the office is reviewing its options for retrial. They did not confirm whether they had received a letter from the White House, because they had not, because the White House does not send letters on behalf of defense attorneys in state homicide cases.
The retrial date has not been set.
The letter has not been answered.
President Trump has not, as of press time, assumed jurisdiction over the Massachusetts court system, though the week is young.
The story we are making fun of: https://www.foxnews.com/us/lindsay-clancys-lawyer-reveals-post-mistrial-strategy-retrial-looms