July 27, 2026

1. 09:23CBS Boston reports the courtroom preparing. Judge William Sullivan presiding at Plymouth Superior Court; ADA Jennifer Sprague leading for the Commonwealth and Kevin Reddington for the defense. An eighteen-member jury, twelve women and six men, had been seated after four days of selection.
2. 09:30Court in session. The Boston Globe reports Clancy brought in in a wheelchair, wearing a pink blouse and accompanied by three nurses. Sullivan took the bench and immediately called counsel to sidebar.
3. 09:36Technical difficulties delayed the start; the Globe reports a sidebar called to deal with them. No outlet says what the problem was.
4. 09:52Jury sworn. Sullivan first asked the jurors whether they had kept away from coverage of the case and whether anything since the previous week had affected their impartiality; all said no. CBS Boston timestamps this 09:52 and the Globe 09:53.
5. 09:57Preliminary instructions. Sullivan told jurors they must presume Clancy innocent unless the Commonwealth proved guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the indictment carried no inference of guilt.
6. 10:03Sullivan told jurors Clancy faced three counts of murder and gave them the criminal responsibility standard: a defendant is not criminally responsible for her conduct if, as a result of a mental disease or defect, she lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality or wrongfulness of her conduct or to conform her conduct to the requirements of the law. Reported by the Boston Globe.
7. 10:05Sullivan told jurors they would take a view of the scene and that they alone would judge the credibility of witnesses.
8. 10:07CBS Boston recaps the four days of jury selection: candidates were questioned about their experience of psychiatry, their familiarity with mental health facilities and their exposure to postpartum depression.
9. 10:08Sullivan explained that sidebar conferences would be held out of the jury's hearing.
10. 10:09Sullivan instructed jurors to keep an open mind until all the evidence was in and deliberations began.
11. 10:11Sullivan warned jurors not to discuss the case with anyone or consume coverage of it, telling them a fair and just trial had to be ensured.
12. 10:10-10:18Opening statement for the Commonwealth by ADA Shanan Buckingham. CBS Boston puts the start at 10:10, the Globe puts the openings beginning at 10:13 and Buckingham starting at 10:18. The two blogs run several minutes apart across the whole morning.
13. 10:24-10:34Buckingham finished. CBS Boston timestamps the conclusion 10:24 and the Globe 10:34.
14. 10:30-10:38Opening statement for the defense by Kevin Reddington. CBS Boston timestamps the start 10:30 and the Globe 10:38.
15. 10:54-11:10Reddington finished. CBS Boston timestamps the conclusion 10:54; the Globe's last entry from the defense opening is at 11:10.
16. 11:05-11:13Jury out for the morning recess. The Globe reports Clancy putting her face in her hands and sobbing as they left, and describes the break as a twenty-minute recess although its own entries put the jury back at about 11:46.
17. 11:26CBS Boston reports the terms of the media restriction Sullivan had allowed on Friday on Patrick Clancy's motion. See rulings.
18. 11:45-11:47Patrick Clancy called as the Commonwealth's first witness. CBS Boston timestamps this 11:45, the Globe 11:47 with him taking the stand at 11:50, wearing a navy suit. The Globe notes he appears on both the Commonwealth's and the defense witness lists.
19. 13:00Lunch recess with Patrick Clancy still on the stand. The Globe gives it as 13:00 to 14:00. CBS Boston reports the break called at 13:00 with testimony resuming about 14:00.
20. 13:49-14:15Patrick Clancy back on the stand. CBS Boston's entry is at 13:49 and the Globe's at 14:15.
21. 14:18Sidebar after the prosecutor displayed a photograph of Cora. CBS Boston reports a defense objection at this point; the Globe reports only that a sidebar was requested. Neither reports how it was resolved.
22. 14:20After the sidebar, Patrick Clancy described each of the children while their photographs were shown. The Globe reports Clancy reaching for tissues and crying as the images went up on the courtroom screen.
23. 14:24Counsel called to sidebar after evidence about the family's January 8, 2023 visit to the Museum of Science. Resolution not reported.
24. 14:41The Commonwealth played video of the family arriving at the water park and of the children on a slide.
25. 14:45Counsel called to sidebar after the water park video. Resolution not reported.
26. 15:07Counsel called back to sidebar during evidence about the evening of January 24, 2023.
27. 15:05Sullivan sent the jury home for the day, roughly an hour early, reminding them again to stay away from coverage. The Globe reports that he gave no explanation for stopping early and that prosecutors had appeared poised to play Patrick Clancy's 911 call; Boston 25 likewise reports the 911 call had not been reached.
28. 15:07With the jury gone, Sullivan called counsel to sidebar to discuss the view, then recessed until 9 a.m. Wednesday. The Globe has him off the bench before 15:10.
29. -CBS Boston records the trial's working day as starting about 9 a.m., with a morning recess, a break from 1 to 2 and afternoon testimony until about 4.
30. 28 JulNo sitting. CBS Boston reports the reason was unrelated to the case. Court resumed Wednesday, July 29.

The first day of evidence. Judge William Sullivan took the bench at about 09:30 with Clancy brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair, wearing a pink blouse and accompanied by three nurses, and immediately called counsel to sidebar; the Boston Globe reports a technical problem holding things up at about 09:36. The jury of eighteen — twelve women and six men, seated after four days of selection in which candidates were asked about their experience of psychiatry, of mental health facilities and of postpartum depression — was sworn at about 09:52, after the judge confirmed none of them had taken in coverage of the case. Sullivan then gave the preliminary charge: the presumption of innocence, proof beyond a reasonable doubt, an indictment carrying no inference of guilt, and, at about 10:03, the criminal responsibility standard itself — that a defendant is not criminally responsible if a mental disease or defect leaves her lacking substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality or wrongfulness of her conduct or to conform her conduct to the requirements of the law. He told jurors they would take a view of the scene, that credibility was theirs alone to judge, and that they were to keep an open mind and stay away from coverage of the trial. Opening statements began between about 10:10 and 10:13; the Globe and CBS Boston timestamp the morning several minutes apart throughout. ADA Shanan Buckingham opened for the Commonwealth. She introduced the three children — Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months, though Boston 25's live blog gives Callan as seven months — and told jurors they were killed deliberately and meticulously, one after another, with exercise bands pulled around their necks until they were limp; Boston 25 gives the order as Dawson, then Cora, then Callan. She walked the jury through January 24, 2023: a photograph of Dawson that Patrick sent that morning, a search at about 4 p.m. for takeout and for how long delivery from a Plymouth restaurant would take, and Patrick leaving at about 5:15 p.m. for the food and for medicine for Cora — the point at which, she told jurors, the clock started. She described Clancy afterward cutting herself and jumping from a second-story window, found in the back yard moaning and mumbling, and Patrick returning to a silent house, finding the children with the bands still around their necks and shouting that she had killed them. On the command hallucinations the defense would rely on, Buckingham told the jury the voice stopped once the children were dead and asked them to weigh the source, the timing and the substance of Clancy's statements about it. Her theme was that this was not a woman in the throes of psychosis but one who acted intentionally, rationally and swiftly toward a single goal, and she described a classic overachiever who was extremely controlling, meticulous and manipulative, who had found bonding with her children hard, who made a deliberate choice to stop treatment after four months, and who, seeing a chance to escape, took the children with her because no one else would care for them as she wanted. WBUR reports her using photographs and videos to argue Clancy had been functioning normally, and CBS Boston reports her telling jurors the case was about this defendant and not a wider argument about women's mental health care. Kevin Reddington opened for the defense at about 10:30 to 10:38. He warned jurors they would have to hear and look at terrible things, told them they owed allegiance to nothing but their oath, framed the case as one about women's health and postpartum psychosis, and said District Attorney Timothy Cruz knew when he brought murder charges that they would destroy this young woman. He conceded she killed the children and put the issue as what was happening in her mind. He described a high achiever, physically fit, who loved her children, a couple who had everything, and a Duxbury house full of signs that the children were loved and cared for. He said Patrick would describe what the two of them went through parenting three children and that things went wrong in September 2022. He described Clancy cutting her throat in front of a second-floor bedroom mirror, displayed photographs of her neck and wrist wounds and told jurors this was no faked suicide; he described her throwing herself from the window, striking her head, fracturing her neck and shattering her spine, and living in her own hell now, knowing what happened to the children and having wanted to die in the hospital. He took the jury through the medication history — problems reported with the drugs by the fall of 2022, a Thanksgiving at which she was walking around like a zombie and was seen banging her head into a sofa pillow, five days at McLean from New Year's Eve, a woman who wanted off the drugs rather than more of them, and providers who went on prescribing into January 2023 — and anticipated the attack on the command hallucinations by telling jurors there was no plan to fake illness. He said she told her doctors she was suicidal and that in December, to their lasting regret, she told Patrick in front of her mother that she was having psychosis and thoughts of hurting the children. She was psychotic, he said, when she went down to that basement; she had no motive, she loved her children, and she intended to kill herself. The Globe reports Clancy putting her face in her hands and sobbing as the jury filed out for the morning recess. During that recess CBS Boston reported the media restriction Sullivan had allowed the previous Friday on a motion by Patrick Clancy: the 911 call and the children's autopsy photographs may not be recorded, displayed, reproduced or distributed by the media, and the courtroom camera is to be shut off while that evidence is presented. Patrick Clancy was called as the Commonwealth's first witness at about 11:45 to 11:47 and was on the stand for the rest of the day, examined — according to CBS Boston, WBUR and boston.com — by ADA Jennifer Sprague rather than by Buckingham. He gave the family history: meeting Lindsay in 2013, marrying in December 2016, the births of Cora, Dawson and Callan, and a pattern in which she coped until each maternity leave ran out and the return to work as a labor and delivery nurse approached. He described the deterioration from October 2022 — Zoloft that did not help, a switch of psychiatrists and of drugs, a night driving herself to the hospital after roughly forty-eight hours without sleep, a Thanksgiving in rough shape, and a December change of medication he and other outlets identify as Seroquel that he called awful and described as where the real spiral began. Two distinct lines ran through the direct, and both were the Commonwealth's. The first was the pill count: Sprague put it to him that a great deal was prescribed and not much of it taken, and he agreed it might be so, having not known she took only seven Zoloft or six of thirty Ativan, having not been present each time she took anything, and having kept no count. The second was normal functioning in January 2023: Cora's birthday party on the 7th, the Museum of Science on the 8th, a brunch he went to on the 14th at her encouragement, the Cape Codder water park in Hyannis on the 15th with video played to the jury, a day skiing with Cora on the 16th while she kept the younger two, a weekend at her parents' on the 21st, and a friend's dinner table on the 22nd. Asked why he was comfortable leaving the children with her, he said her mood was better and she was more active and taking part in more. Asked about January 24 he said she was having one of her best days: she drove Cora to a doctor's appointment, built a snowman with the children, exchanged texts and photos with him through the day, raised takeout from ThreeV in Plymouth — a place they had eaten at but never ordered from — and seemed normal as he left, telling the children he would be back with the food. Against that, and helpful to the defense, he described disclosures he had never heard before December 2022: intrusive thoughts of harming the children or of something happening to them, voiced a couple of times, disturbing to her, with no plan; and when he asked whether she needed to be kept away from the children she said no, which he found confusing because a minute later she would be making their lunch. He never saw her harm them and was not concerned for their safety because she showed no intention of harming them. He said she never described hearing a voice. He described pressing for in-person rather than virtual appointments, a day program in Providence that lasted one day, and five days at McLean from New Year's that did not seem to him to be treatment — while conceding he had not known she was seen daily, that she declined further group therapy, that she asked to be discharged early for Cora's birthday, or that there were insurance problems, adding that he would have paid anything. His voice cracked describing the children: Cora into princesses and looking after people, Dawson into fire engines and Paw Patrol, Callan simply a happy baby; Clancy reached for tissues and cried as their photographs went up. Sidebars punctuated the afternoon — after the photograph of Cora, after the Museum of Science evidence, after the water park video and again at about 15:07 — and no outlet reports how any of them was resolved. Sullivan sent the jurors home at about 15:05, roughly an hour early, without explaining why; the Globe and Boston 25 both note that prosecutors appeared poised to play Patrick's 911 call, which was not reached. He then discussed the view with counsel at sidebar and recessed to 9 a.m. Wednesday. Court did not sit Tuesday, July 28 — CBS Boston says the reason was unrelated to the case. Patrick Clancy's examination was unfinished; CBS Boston and boston.com report he would resume on direct with cross-examination still ahead, while Boston 25 describes him as already under cross-examination when court adjourned.

Sources: globe-day-01, cbs-day-01, boston-0727, b25-day-01, b25-openings, wbur-patrick, eastidaho-day-01, cnn-openings, cnn-day1, wbur-openings, courttv-daily

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