Massachusetts voters are sharply divided along party lines over whether Lindsay Clancy is guilty of the deaths of her three children, with Democrats leaning toward not guilty while Republicans overwhelmingly lean toward guilty, according to a new University of New Hampshire poll.
The UNH poll, conducted Sept. 17-21, found 40% of Massachusetts respondents believe Clancy is guilty, while 36% believe she is not guilty.
The overall numbers, however, mask a significant partisan divide.
Among Democrats, respondents said they believed Clancy was not guilty by a 22-point margin. Republicans went in the opposite direction, saying Clancy was guilty by a 49-point margin.
The poll comes after Clancy’s murder trial ended in a mistrial earlier this month when jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict. Eleven jurors reportedly sided with Clancy’s defense argument that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she killed her children, while one juror maintained that she was criminally responsible.
Clancy was accused of killing her three young children in 2023 before attempting to take her own life. She has remained in a psychiatric hospital while the case remains unresolved.
The lone holdout juror, Michael Desronvil, said he believed Clancy understood what she was doing and should be held criminally responsible. The other jurors ultimately did not reach the same conclusion, resulting in the mistrial.
Clancy’s defense has argued that postpartum psychosis left her unable to understand or control her actions at the time of the killings. Prosecutors have argued that she was criminally responsible.
The case remains unresolved following the mistrial, and prosecutors have not yet announced whether they will seek a retrial. Clancy’s attorney has instead asked the court to dismiss the case, while also seeking an investigation into the conduct of the lone holdout juror.
The UNH results show that public opinion over the case has also developed along partisan lines, with Democrats and Republicans reaching sharply different conclusions about Clancy’s criminal responsibility.
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