Lindsay Clancy Asks Judge to Dismiss Murder Charges, Deny 2nd Trial

Attorneys for Lindsay Clancy asked a judge Monday to dismiss three first-degree murder charges and bar a second trial, arguing that retrying her after a hung jury would violate double jeopardy protections.

Clancy is charged in the January 24, 2023, deaths of her three children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan — who she strangled with exercise bands in the family’s Duxbury home. She then slashed her wrists and jumped from a second-story window and is now paralyzed.

Neither side disputed that she killed the children. Prosecutors said the killings were premeditated and that Clancy knew they were wrong. Her lawyers said she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, had sought help, and was not criminally responsible.

A seven-week trial ended September 4 when Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial.

The jury of nine women and three men deliberated about 38 hours over seven days and deadlocked 11-1. Eleven jurors were prepared to find Clancy not criminally responsible by reason of mental illness or defect. One juror was not. ---More...

Texas Supreme Court Rules Against McKenna West, Says Baby Can Leave State

The Texas Supreme Court on Monday rejected surrogate McKenna West’s request to keep the surrogate child she gave birth to in Texas, allowing Baby Gabriel’s biological parents to take him to California for further heart treatment.

The one-month-old boy, named Rumi by his biological parents, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, was born August 12 in Dallas through surrogacy. Doctors diagnosed him in April, while he was still in the womb, with an underdeveloped heart that prevents normal blood flow.

He has been treated at Children’s Hospital in Dallas, has already undergone one surgery, and is expected to need more.

West, who lives in Alaska, came to Texas after the birth and sought sole conservatorship so she could control medical decisions. She accused the parents of pressuring her to kill Gabriel in an abortion after the heart defect was discovered. ---More...

Canada Euthanizes 83-Year-Old Grandma Against Her Will

On July 22, I published an article titled: My Family’s Experience with Medical Assistance in Dying.

On July 27, Kelsi Sheren published an article titled: The Last 10 days of Brigitte (GG) Stegemann.

On September 20, the Daily Mail published an article by Imogen Garfinkel titled: Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother was euthanized against her will under Canada’s assisted dying system.

Garfinkel’s article is based on Brigitte Stegemann (83), who was killed by euthanasia and whose family are now challenging Canada’s euthanasia system that approved and then killed their grandmother. Garfinkel writes:

Two days before her Christian grandmother’s assisted dying procedure in Ontario, Canada, Brigitte Kranendonk sat her down to make sure she knew exactly what was going to happen. ---More...

Maura Healey Wants to Investigate Parents of Every Newborn Baby

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is pushing to send state-backed health-care workers into the homes of families after every birth in the state so a provider can “make an assessment,” a proposal that would extend a government home-visiting program to Massachusetts’ roughly 68,000 annual births.

But the pro-abortion governor is facing serious questions about whether such a program is government overreach and would lead to investigations or parents the state opposes because of their Christian faith or views.

“Everybody in the state, when you have a baby, you’re going to have a home visit. You’re going to have a home visit within days, weeks, and that will be an opportunity for a healthcare provider to make an assessment and to see if you need some additional support and resources,” Healey said on Boston Public Radio.

The governor announced the plan as part of a postpartum package that includes $2 million to expand the Department of Public Health’s Welcome Family program and $250,000 for the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program for Moms. ---More...

Lindsay Clancy Attorney Wants Holdout Juror Investigated

The lawyer for Lindsay Clancy, charged with strangling her three young children to death, is asking a judge to investigate the lone juror who blocked an acquittal and forced a mistrial.

Attorney Kevin Reddington is seeking a review of that juror’s phone use during deliberations.

Reddington filed a motion seeking a “limited inquiry” into the holdout, identified in public reports as Michael P. Desronvil, 48, of Bridgewater, Massachusetts. The filing asks the court to preserve questionnaires, hallway surveillance video outside the deliberation room and cellphone sign-in sheets for all 12 jurors and six alternates.

It also seeks Desronvil’s questionnaire and supplemental filings, probation records, his record in the statewide domestic violence registry, phone records from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on each deliberation day, and an independent examination of his phone use in that period.

Reddington asked that prosecutors say whether they have had contact with the holdout as a defendant, complainant or subject going back to January 2021. He wants the juror questioned, on the record and with lawyers present, about the truthfulness of his questionnaire and voir dire answers, his statements to the court on September 3, and whether he used a phone or outside information while the jury was out. ---More...