Trial day 17 of 28 · Thursday · Defense case

August 20, 2026

A single defense witness on the stand for well under an hour, a jury polled one by one under oath before evidence began and sent home before eleven, and then, with the jury gone, the first sustained fight over the jury instructions. Sheila Cavanaugh, the Brigham and Women's chaplain who met Lindsay Clancy the morning after the killings, gave the jury a second account of a reported command hallucination and then conceded on cross-examination that her own detailed chaplaincy notes never mention it. In the afternoon session the Commonwealth asked for a criminal responsibility charge with no intoxication component and opposed any lesser included offense; the defense asked for involuntary intoxication and involuntary manslaughter. The judge decided nothing and undertook to circulate a draft charge on Friday. Outside, several hundred supporters in pink held a silent standout that the jurors drove past on their way in.

Coverage: reported. Multiple outlets described this day's proceedings. This is a summary of press reporting, not a transcript and not a record of what anyone said. All trial days · This day at clancytrial.org

What mattered

Key points 19

MATERIAL FOR THE COMMONWEALTH: the chaplain's contemporaneous notes record no voice-hearing. Sprague established that Cavanaugh documented every interaction in the hospital record in detail and never once wrote that Clancy reported a voice or what it said, and Cavanaugh agreed.
MATERIAL FOR THE COMMONWEALTH: the notes were specific about everything else. Sprague read out entries on Clancy's fear of never walking again and of being vulnerable to others, an entry in which Clancy said she was deserving of what had happened, a request for help applying for Social Security disability benefits, entries describing her as hopeful about a Spaulding discharge and optimistic about her physical progress, and an entry about playing cards with her mother. The selectivity was the point.
MATERIAL FOR THE DEFENSE: the answer she gave to that attack. Cavanaugh testified her notes are not verbatim transcripts, that she is not medically trained, that her role is not to evaluate a patient but to bear witness to suffering, and — per LA Magazine — that there are limits on what she records from privileged spiritual communication. On redirect she agreed a word like hopeful in the notes was her own assessment rather than a quotation of Clancy.
LA MAGAZINE ALONE REPORTS THE RECROSS THAT ANSWERS THE REDIRECT: Sprague pointed out that some entries do carry quotation marks, and asked whether those reflected words Clancy actually spoke. Her answer is not reported.
WHAT THE QUOTED TESTIMONY DOES NOT SAY. Every outlet carries Cavanaugh saying the voice told Clancy that if she did not follow the command neither she nor her children would be safe. None quotes her saying what the command was. NBC10 Boston, ABC News, East Idaho News and Boston 25's filed story each summarize her as having said the voice told Clancy to kill the children and then herself. That is the outlets' gloss, consistent with earlier defense witnesses, and should not be carried into a statement of what this witness said.
This is at least the second and by some accounts the third witness to relay a reported command hallucination, after the 08-18 psychologist, and it mirrors the point drawn from Dr. Zeizel on 08-19: no medical record documents voices telling her to kill.
THE VISIT COUNT IS NOT SETTLED. Boston 25, ABC News, Rolling Stone and LA Magazine put roughly 200 visits at Tewksbury State Hospital alone, on top of about fourteen at Brigham and Women's and further visits at Spaulding. The Boston Globe and the Associated Press put more than 200 as the total since the killings; East Idaho News gives about 200 over roughly three years. Both readings are recorded.
THE OUTLETS DISAGREE ON WHETHER THE GRIEF OBJECTION SUCCEEDED. The Boston Globe reports the characterization stricken and LA Magazine reports the objection sustained; Newsweek reports the judge permitting it. Two to one, unresolved.
THE CHARGE IS CONTESTED, AND NOTHING WAS DECIDED. At the preliminary charge conference the defense asked that involuntary manslaughter and wanton conduct go to the jury with the impact of intoxication built in, and that the criminal responsibility instruction carry involuntary intoxication; the Commonwealth opposed both. Judge Sullivan announced no ruling and said counsel would have a rough draft of the instructions on Friday.
THE COMMONWEALTH'S INTOXICATION ARGUMENT, IN ITS OWN TERMS. Sprague argued there was no evidence of intoxication by drugs or alcohol during the killings: 10 milligrams of amitriptyline recently raised to 20 with no real evidence Clancy took the increase, plus low doses of trazodone and Valium; the medications the defense relies on predate the McLean admission and had been out of her system for at least three weeks by January 24, 2023. She likened it to a drunk-driving case — what matters is the day itself.
THE DEFENSE'S ANSWER, IN ITS OWN TERMS. Reddington said the case is clearly an involuntary intoxication defense so far as the charge is concerned, resting on over-prescription, side effects, and the titration, termination or abrupt cessation of medication against normal medical advice, and that the case cannot be tried in a vacuum.
THE COMMONWEALTH ASKED FOR FIRST- AND SECOND-DEGREE MURDER, first degree on both theories of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty, and for instructions on opinion testimony, prior consistent and inconsistent statements, redactions, stipulations and consciousness of guilt. Hearst Connecticut live blog, the only outlet to report the list.
MORE EVIDENCE ABOUT PILLS TAKEN AFTER THE KILLINGS WAS STILL EXPECTED. Sprague said so in passing during the charge conference. Hearst alone reports it.
THE JUDGE ENGAGED WITH THE DEFINITION OF INTOXICATION HIMSELF, asking how it should be defined on this evidence, whether an instruction could be warranted where a defendant took a drug and experienced some effect from it, and noting the difficulty of finding a specific definition within the homicide instructions. LA Magazine alone.
EIGHTEEN JURORS WERE SWORN AND QUESTIONED ONE BY ONE AT SIDEBAR, under oath, with white noise played so the gallery could not hear. No reason was given on the record. NBC10 Boston reports, on an unnamed source, that it was done at the prosecution's request after the standout. That is the only account of a reason anywhere in the coverage and it is anonymous.
NOBODY EXPLAINED THE SHORT DAY. The judge said only that it had nothing to do with the attorneys or the parties, and told jurors to hold it against him if anyone. It was the second early finish in two days; Rolling Stone notes it has not been reported whether the two are connected.
WHAT REDDINGTON SAID ABOUT RESTING IS REPORTED THREE WAYS: ABC News has him saying in court he expects to rest Friday after one more witness; the Hearst blog has him telling reporters on his way into court that he planned to rest Monday; LA Magazine's subheadline says Thursday. Only the in-court version — Dr. Phillip Resnick on Friday as the final defense witness — is carried by more than one outlet, and it is what happened.
DR. MARGARET SPINELLI DID NOT APPEAR. The Boston Globe reported that the defense had been poised to call the postpartum specialist when Wednesday ended, that she was in court Wednesday morning, that she was absent Thursday and that it was unclear whether she would testify. No outlet reports why. She never did testify.
THE DEMONSTRATION WAS THE LARGEST OF THE TRIAL and the jurors drove past it. Crowd figures range from dozens (NBC10 Boston, East Idaho News) to about 300 (Associated Press, Newsweek) to more than 400 (Boston Globe). It was organized by the group that ran the Karen Read standouts in Dedham, and a second gathering was held outside Tewksbury Hospital.

On the stand

Witnesses 1

Sheila Cavanaugh

Defense

Role: Board-certified chaplain, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston; seven years in the post. CBS Boston and Sinclair's WJAR pool caption describe her instead as a Mass General Brigham chaplain. She testified that she is not medically trained, did not treat Clancy and provided spiritual care.
Direct: Reddington
Cross: Sprague

Testimony, as reported:

TESTIMONY COMPLETE IN ONE SITTING. The only witness called on 08-20 and the only witness the jury heard all day. Called at about 10:14 (Boston 25) to 10:20 (East Idaho News); LA Magazine puts the start at about 10:16 and the Boston Globe posted the call at 10:19. Direct by Reddington, cross by ADA Jennifer Sprague, redirect by Reddington and — on LA Magazine's account alone — a recross by Sprague. She was off the stand by about 10:36. HOW LONG SHE TESTIFIED IS REPORTED THREE WAYS: about twenty minutes (CBS Boston), about half an hour (Hearst Connecticut live blog), about an hour (ABC News and Rolling Stone). The live-blog timestamps fit the shorter figures.
WHY SHE WAS CALLED. The Boston Globe notes she had been named in Dr. Paul Zeizel's testimony earlier in the week as the chaplain who interacted with Clancy the day after the killings. She is at least the second and by some accounts the third defense witness to relay a reported command hallucination.
HOW SHE CAME TO THE PATIENT. LA Magazine, the only outlet to report this passage, has her arriving at the hospital at about 8:30 a.m. on January 25, 2023 to relieve the overnight chaplain, being summoned to her director's office and being sent to Unit 8C. She described the unit as flooded with law enforcement that morning; the Hearst live blog reports her saying Clancy was surrounded by police.
THE FIRST VISIT, JANUARY 25, 2023. Clancy could not speak. The Boston Globe, CBS Boston and Boston 25 say she was intubated; the Associated Press renders it as unconscious. Cavanaugh described her as dressed in what she called medical armor — covered in tubes, equipment and other devices, with a neck brace and, in Newsweek's account, bandaged. LA Magazine reports she returned the following day and found Clancy still intubated and unable to speak; the Globe reports several further visits in the hospital room, praying with her.
JANUARY 31, 2023 — THE FIRST CONVERSATION. Extubated and able to speak. Cavanaugh described Clancy's emotional state as very neutral, a flat affect, and said she remembered vividly what Clancy said as Cavanaugh held her hand to comfort her: that she was so glad her children were safe. Cavanaugh testified that she answered theologically, telling Clancy her children were safe in heaven with God, and that they held hands throughout and prayed for them. LA Magazine names the children in that prayer as Cora, Dawson and Callan. January 31, 2023 was a Tuesday, which is how ABC News records her dating it.
THE VOICE. Asked by Reddington what other conversations with Clancy she recalled, Cavanaugh said Clancy alluded to having heard a voice, and that according to Clancy the voice told her that if she did not follow the command, neither she nor her children would be safe. She said Clancy described it as a male voice and as persistent. Boston 25 reports her saying Clancy spoke of it several times during their visits; Newsweek has the subject arising across the roughly fourteen Brigham visits and continuing at Spaulding and Tewksbury.
MATERIAL FOR THE COMMONWEALTH — WHAT THE QUOTED ANSWER DOES NOT CONTAIN. In the passage carried by the Boston Globe, CBS Boston, Boston 25, the Associated Press, ABC News, Hearst and LA Magazine alike, Cavanaugh does not say what the command was. NBC10 Boston, ABC News, East Idaho News and Boston 25's filed story each summarize her as having said the voice told Clancy to kill her children and then herself, which matches what earlier defense witnesses described, but no outlet quotes her saying it. The distinction matters because the content of the command is the part that bears on McHoul.
CLANCY SEEMED CONFUSED EARLY ON. Boston 25's filed story alone reports Cavanaugh saying that during one of their earliest interactions Clancy appeared confused about what had happened. No other outlet carries it and no outlet reports it being developed on either examination.
THE NUMBER OF VISITS IS NOT AGREED. Boston 25 has her giving fourteen visits at Brigham and Women's, further visits at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and 200 at Tewksbury State Hospital; ABC News, Rolling Stone and LA Magazine likewise put the 200 at Tewksbury, LA Magazine pairing it with at least fourteen during the initial hospitalization. The Boston Globe and the Associated Press instead give more than 200 as the total since the killings, the AP adding that she still visits her at the state hospital; East Idaho News's recap gives about 200 meetings over roughly three years. Both readings are recorded here and neither is treated as the figure.
THE CONTINUING VISITS, AND THE OBJECTION. She testified that she kept visiting because they had built a comfortable, respectful rapport and she felt it was in Clancy's best interest as she healed, and that Clancy was still in deep grief and suffering; asked about Clancy's feelings toward her children on the later visits, she said Clancy loves them deeply, talks about them frequently and carries immense grief, which Boston 25 reports as continuing to this day. The Commonwealth objected. See rulings — the outlets do not agree on the outcome. The Associated Press adds that their most recent visit was shortly before the trial began.
CROSS — THE NOTES CONTAIN NO VOICE. Sprague established that Cavanaugh writes detailed notes into the Brigham and Women's Hospital record documenting every one of her interactions with Clancy, and that she never once wrote that Clancy told her she heard a voice or what the voice said. Cavanaugh agreed. Boston 25's contemporaneous rendering of the exchange is Sprague putting to her that the notes are full of detail about Clancy's thoughts and feelings but contain nothing about hearing voices, and Cavanaugh answering that that is correct.
CROSS — WHAT THE NOTES DO CONTAIN. The Boston Globe reports Sprague pointing to an entry about Clancy's fear that her inability to walk might leave her vulnerable to others in the future. The Hearst live blog adds an entry about her fear of never walking again, an entry in which Clancy said she was deserving of this in light of recent events, and a request from Clancy for help filling out an application for Social Security disability benefits so she would have an income. LA Magazine adds entries describing Clancy as hopeful about being discharged to Spaulding and optimistic about her physical progress despite being unable to move her legs, and an entry describing her playing a card game with her mother and feeling hopeful. Newsweek summarizes the same material as concerns about mobility and expressions of optimism.
CROSS — WHAT SHE COULD NOT REMEMBER. Boston 25's filed story reports Sprague questioning her about conversations with Clancy during the Spaulding Rehabilitation period and drawing out details Cavanaugh said she could not recall. The details are not specified in any account read.
HER ANSWER TO THE ATTACK. Cavanaugh testified that her notes are not verbatim transcripts of conversations, that she is not medically trained, and that she was not there to evaluate the patient but to bear witness to suffering. LA Magazine adds that she described her role as spiritual care and helping Clancy process trauma rather than clinical evaluation, and testified that there are limits on what she documents from privileged spiritual communication. East Idaho News's live blog renders the cross-examination's opening point as establishing that her notes contain her interpretations rather than direct quotations.
REDIRECT. LA Magazine reports Reddington drawing the distinction between Cavanaugh's own observations and statements made to her in confidence as a chaplain, and Cavanaugh clarifying that a description such as hopeful reflected her own words and assessment rather than necessarily a direct quotation from Clancy. East Idaho News timestamps a defense redirect ending the questioning at about 10:38 to 10:39.
RECROSS — SINGLE SOURCE. LA Magazine alone reports that Sprague returned to the point, noting that some of the notes do carry quotation marks and asking whether those entries reflected words Clancy actually spoke. No other outlet reports a recross and no outlet reports her answer.
WHAT SHE WAS NOT ASKED. No outlet reports her being asked for any opinion on diagnosis, on psychosis or on criminal responsibility, or being asked anything about January 24, 2023 itself. She did not treat Clancy and gave no clinical evidence.

From the bench

Rulings 2

10:31AN OBJECTION TO THE CHAPLAIN'S CHARACTERIZATION OF THE DEFENDANT'S GRIEF, AND THE OUTLETS DO NOT AGREE HOW IT WAS RULED. Cavanaugh, explaining why she had continued visiting, told the jury Clancy was still in deep grief and suffering and, asked about her feelings toward her children, that she loves them deeply and carries immense grief. ARGUED: no outlet reports the ground the Commonwealth stated, and none reports any response from Reddington. RULED: the Boston Globe reports Judge Sullivan ruling that the characterization be stricken from the record. LA Magazine reports the objection sustained and Reddington directed to move on. Newsweek's account says prosecutors objected but that the judge permitted the testimony. Two outlets have the objection succeeding and one has it failing; nothing read settles it. The substance reached the jury in any event, because the same material is carried in the Associated Press account of her direct examination.
11:35PRELIMINARY CHARGE CONFERENCE — NO RULING MADE. Recorded in this track because it is the argument over what the jury will be told the law is, which is the live issue in the case, and because the judge undertook to decide it later. Held with the jury gone for the day; the parties returned from recess at about 11:30 and the Boston Globe posted the judge's return to the bench at 11:35. Timestamps below are the Globe's; East Idaho News stamps the same exchanges roughly seven to twenty minutes earlier (11:37, 11:41, 11:43, 11:48).

ARGUED FOR THE COMMONWEALTH (ADA Jennifer Sprague, per the Hearst Connecticut live blog, which carries the fullest account): the instructions the Commonwealth had listed were opinion testimony, prior consistent and prior inconsistent statements, redactions, stipulations and consciousness of guilt. On the charges, first- and second-degree murder, with first degree on both theories of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty. On criminal responsibility, an instruction with no intoxication component, because there had been no evidence of intoxication by drugs or alcohol during the killings. In support: at the time of the killings Clancy was on 10 milligrams of amitriptyline, recently increased to 20, with no real evidence whether she took the increase, plus a low dose of trazodone and a low dose of Valium; there was no evidence of intoxication from those drugs. The medications the defense relies on were given before the McLean admission, and Sprague likened the question to a drunk-driving case — what matters is the defendant's state on the date of the incident, and those drugs had been out of her system for at least three weeks by January 24, 2023. She noted more evidence was still expected about Clancy taking pills after the killings. On the lesser included offense: involuntary manslaughter should not go to the jury because the evidence was of a specific intent to cause death.

ARGUED FOR THE DEFENSE (Kevin Reddington): he said he did not know whether the government had been listening to the same evidence, and that this is clearly an involuntary intoxication defense, at least so far as the judge's charge is concerned. The components he listed were over-prescription of the medications, their side effects, and the titration, termination or immediate cessation of them against what normal medical advice would be — all of which he said contributed to a state of mind Clancy had expressed to a great many people. He asked the court to instruct on involuntary manslaughter and on wanton conduct, with the impact of intoxication built in, said the case could not be tried in a vacuum and said the evidence was such that the jury should have the option of considering involuntary manslaughter. LA Magazine adds an argument about the form of the charge: that while the model instructions guide how the elements are laid out, how they are presented is the judge's, and Reddington was wary of the murder instruction being reduced to what he called a checklist.

THE JUDGE'S OWN QUESTIONS: LA Magazine, alone, reports Sullivan engaging with the definitional problem — asking how intoxication should be defined on the evidence presented, asking whether an instruction could be warranted where a defendant took a drug and experienced some effect from it, and remarking on the difficulty of finding a specific definition of intoxication within the homicide instructions.

RULED: nothing. Sullivan announced no decision on either request. He said he would have a rough draft of the jury instructions ready on Friday, and that depending on the timing of closings counsel would have the opportunity to review the draft, go over it and put any objections or suggestions on the record.

In sequence

Procedural 16

06:30Supporters in pink began gathering outside Plymouth Superior Court, about fifteen of them more than an hour before a silent standout advertised for 7:45 a.m. by an organizing website called Stand in Peace for Lindsay. Hearst Connecticut live blog. The Boston Globe reports some arriving as early as 7.
07:25The crowd passed one hundred. Hearst reports at least eight police officers posted outside, most on the sidewalk opposite a line of caution tape, no counter-demonstrators, a documentary crew filming, and supporters of all ages. An organizer said the plan was for everyone to be in place to greet Clancy as she was driven past on her way in.
08:00Boston 25 dates the start of the silent Stand in Peace demonstration to 8 a.m., in a roped-off area outside the courthouse. The Boston Globe notes the courthouse doors open for jurors at 8 a.m., well after the crowd began to form.
08:20Kevin Reddington arrived in the parking lot to cheers and spoke briefly to reporters before going in. The Boston Globe reports him laughing off a question about being the voice of all women and saying he was not that. The Hearst blog carries a longer set of remarks in which he said the case shines a light on a system he declined to call health care, describing women being handed one pill after another, treated for fifteen or twenty minutes and sent on their way. Hearst also reports him telling reporters on the way in that he planned to rest his case on Monday — see key points; three outlets give three different days.
08:40THE DEMONSTRATION. Supporters formed a circle on a patch of grass across from the courthouse. Organizer Renee Kimball, 40, of Augusta, Maine, addressed them, said it should not have taken the deaths of Cora, Callan and Dawson and Lindsay Clancy's own near-death for psychiatric doctors to listen to their patients, and asked for stillness. The crowd kept about two minutes of silence, many holding hands, and dozens joined a recitation of the Lord's Prayer; the Associated Press adds that they raised their arms and made hearts with their hands and that some carried flags of other countries. Boston Globe and AP.

THE OUTLETS DO NOT AGREE ON THE SIZE. Boston Globe: more than 400. Associated Press and Newsweek: about 300 women and a few men. Boston 25 and the AP's lead: hundreds. NBC10 Boston headline: dozens. East Idaho News: dozens of women in pink. Recorded as reported; none is treated here as the count.

Kimball told reporters the idea came from a one o'clock in the morning TikTok post after she watched Clancy end a day of autopsy evidence in pieces, and that it had grown into events in more than eighteen states and overseas, with gatherings advertised in New York City, Phoenix, Fort Worth and the Netherlands and others mentioned in the United Kingdom and South Africa. NBC10 Boston reports the organizing group is the same one that held rallies outside Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham during the Karen Read trials, a point East Idaho News also makes. WCVB, carried by Hearst, reports a second gathering of supporters outside Tewksbury Hospital, about ninety minutes away, where Clancy is held and from which she is transported each day.
09:23Inside, the Boston Globe reported more members of the public seeking a courtroom seat than on any day since opening statements on July 27, more than sixty in the courtroom, and the first person in line saying she had flown from Florida. Clancy was in a dusty pink shirt with a beige sweater. Her parents, Paula and Michael Musgrove, who have attended every day since jury selection, were told by women in line that they were with them; they sit in the front of the spectator section, behind the two nurses who accompany Clancy to court from Tewksbury Hospital each day.
09:29MATERIAL FOR THE RECORD ON WHO WAS NOT CALLED. The Boston Globe reported that when Wednesday ended Reddington had been poised to call Dr. Margaret Spinelli, a specialist in postpartum mental illness and one of the defense's key expert witnesses; that she had attended the proceedings only sporadically; that she was present Wednesday morning but was not in the courtroom on Thursday; and that it was unclear whether she would testify. The Globe added that the defense had another expert slated to testify by video link. No outlet read reports an explanation.
09:41EACH JUROR SWORN AND QUESTIONED INDIVIDUALLY AT SIDEBAR BEFORE ANY EVIDENCE. The judge's clerk, who swears in the witnesses, swore in each juror at the sidebar so that the answers were given under oath, and white noise was played so the gallery could not hear. Boston 25 reports the jurors called up one at a time to the sidebar with the judge and both sets of attorneys; CBS Boston reports them called in the order they sit in the box, each raising a right hand. NO REASON WAS STATED ON THE RECORD and both CBS Boston and Boston 25 say it is not clear why. The Boston Globe and Boston 25 both note that the jurors had driven past the standout to reach the courthouse and treat the questioning as a precaution against its effect; the court did not connect them. NBC10 Boston reports, citing an unnamed source, that the polling was done at the prosecution's request following the standout — one outlet, anonymously sourced, and recorded as such rather than as the reason.
09:56The individual questioning finished and Judge Sullivan called a brief break before the next defense witness. Boston 25 at 09:56; East Idaho News stamps the recess announcement at 09:58. LA Magazine notes the day started a bit late as a result.
10:10Court resumed and the jury came back in. All eighteen jurors were present. Judge Sullivan put his standing question to the panel as a whole — whether any of them had seen or heard anything affecting their ability to serve — and they answered no in unison. Boston Globe at 10:12; East Idaho News at 10:10 and 10:17. CBS Boston describes the panel as twelve women and six men.
10:15THE SHORT DAY, UNEXPLAINED. Judge Sullivan told the jurors Thursday's testimony would be relatively short because of an issue that had nothing to do with any of the attorneys or the parties; that they were not to speculate about it and not to hold it against either side; and that if they were going to hold it against anybody they could hold it against him. He told them to expect a longer day on Friday. The Hearst blog adds that he told them the case was, if not on schedule, still ahead of schedule. He never said what the issue was. This was the second consecutive early finish — Wednesday's was attributed from the bench to an unforeseen circumstance — and Rolling Stone notes that whether the two are connected has not been reported. East Idaho News is the only account read that ties Thursday's shortened sitting to an issue carried over from the previous day; three other outlets carry the judge saying it had nothing to do with the attorneys or parties.
10:36Cavanaugh left the witness stand and counsel went to sidebar. Boston 25 at 10:36. LA Magazine describes the testimony as ending rather abruptly after that sidebar.
10:39JURY EXCUSED FOR THE DAY, to return at 9 a.m. Friday. Judge Sullivan told them he had warned them it would be a short day and thanked them for their patience, and reminded them not to read about or discuss the case. Boston 25 timestamps the dismissal at 10:39 and the Boston Globe posted it at 10:46; CBS Boston and the Associated Press both say about 10:30. Rolling Stone notes the jurors have not been sequestered. Sullivan told the parties they would hold a preliminary charge conference and discuss possible jury instructions, and any logistical issues for Friday, after a short recess.
11:30Court came back from recess for the charge conference with the jury gone. Hearst puts the return at about 11:30; East Idaho News at 11:31; Boston 25's reporter noted at 11:34 that testimony was over for the day, the judge was on the bench and all sides had turned to jury instructions and the charge. The argument itself is recorded under rulings.
12:12RECESS UNTIL FRIDAY, AND THE SCHEDULE FROM THE BENCH. Judge Sullivan said he would have a rough draft of the jury instructions for counsel on Friday. The defense was expected to call one more witness, Dr. Phillip Resnick, a forensic psychiatrist with experience in postpartum disorders — CBS Boston reports he would appear by Zoom — and the Commonwealth was expected to call three experts in rebuttal. Sullivan said closing arguments would likely be Monday or Tuesday; CBS Boston frames that as depending on how long the final four witnesses are on the stand. He said there had been a lot of evidence and a lot of witnesses and that if the parties felt they needed a day to marshal their thoughts, that could be discussed. East Idaho News timestamps the adjournment at 11:51 and CBS Boston and Hearst put the end of the day just before noon; the Globe posted the recess at 12:12. NOTE ON TIMESTAMPS: through the charge conference the Boston Globe's live-blog stamps run roughly seven to twenty minutes later than East Idaho News's for the same exchanges. Earlier in the day the two broadly agree.
-AFTER COURT. CBS Boston reports supporters waiting to greet Reddington and be photographed with him as he left, and Reddington telling reporters that Clancy was still very sad and very attentive but buoyed by the support and grateful for it.

In evidence

Exhibits 1

Sheila Cavanaugh's chaplaincy notes in the Brigham and Women's Hospital record. Read from and put to her in detail on cross-examination by ADA Sprague and returned to on redirect and recross. NO OUTLET REPORTS AN EXHIBIT NUMBER, a motion to admit, or whether the notes were already in evidence as part of the hospital records. Nothing else was reported marked or admitted on 08-20.

As reported

Account

A half day. One defense witness, a jury sent home before eleven, and then the first argument of the trial about what the jury will actually be told the law is.

OUTSIDE. The morning belonged to the demonstration. Supporters in pink began collecting outside Plymouth Superior Court at about 6:30 a.m., about fifteen of them more than an hour before a silent standout advertised for 7:45 by an organizing website calling itself Stand in Peace for Lindsay; the Hearst Connecticut live blog counted more than a hundred by about 7:25 and the Boston Globe reported that some had arrived as early as 7. THE OUTLETS DO NOT AGREE ON THE SIZE. The Globe reported more than 400; the Associated Press and Newsweek about 300 women and a few men; Boston 25 and the AP's own lead said hundreds; NBC10 Boston headlined dozens, and East Idaho News also said dozens. Renee Kimball, 40, of Augusta, Maine, organized it after watching Clancy end a day of autopsy evidence in pieces, and said the idea began as a one o'clock in the morning TikTok post and had grown into events in more than eighteen states and abroad, with gatherings advertised in New York City, Phoenix, Fort Worth and the Netherlands; WCVB, carried by Hearst, reported a second gathering outside Tewksbury Hospital, where Clancy is held. The crowd stood in silence for more than an hour without signs, formed a circle, said the Lord's Prayer, kept a moment of silence and raised their arms into heart shapes. At least eight police officers were posted outside and no counter-demonstrators appeared. Kevin Reddington was cheered into the parking lot at about 8:20, spoke briefly to reporters about a mental health system that he said hands women pills and moves them along in fifteen or twenty minutes, and, asked how it felt to be the voice of all women, said he was not that. The Globe reported more people trying for a courtroom seat than on any day since opening statements, and more than sixty members of the public inside.

THE JURY WAS SWORN AND QUESTIONED ONE BY ONE. Before any evidence, Judge William Sullivan called each juror to sidebar individually. The clerk who swears witnesses swore each juror, so the answers were given under oath, and white noise was played so the gallery could not hear. No reason was stated on the record. The Globe and Boston 25 both noted that the jurors had driven past the standout to reach the courthouse — the courthouse doors open for them at 8 a.m., well after the crowd formed — and both treated the questioning as a precaution against it; the court did not say so. NBC10 Boston went further and reported, on an unnamed source, that the polling was done at the prosecution's request following the standout. That is one outlet and one anonymous attribution, and it is recorded as such. The questioning ran from about 9:41 to about 9:56, the judge then called a short break, and when the full panel of eighteen came back at about 10:10 he put his usual question to them collectively and they answered together that they had heard nothing affecting their service.

SHEILA CAVANAUGH. The defense's only witness was a board-certified chaplain at Brigham and Women's Hospital, seven years in the post, called by Reddington at about 10:14 to 10:20 and off the stand by about 10:36. She had been named in Dr. Paul Zeizel's testimony earlier in the week as someone who saw Clancy the day after the killings. She testified that she came on shift at about 8:30 in the morning on January 25, 2023 to relieve the overnight chaplain, was called to her director's office and sent to Unit 8C, which she described as flooded with law enforcement. Clancy could not speak — the Globe and CBS Boston say she was intubated, the Associated Press says unconscious — and Cavanaugh described her as dressed in what she called medical armor, covered in tubes, equipment and a neck brace and, in the Hearst account, surrounded by police. She came back the next day and found her still intubated, and visited several more times, praying with her.

On January 31, 2023, extubated and able to speak, Clancy talked to her for the first time. Cavanaugh described her emotional state as very neutral, a flat affect, and said she remembered vividly what Clancy said as she held her hand to comfort her: that she was so glad her children were safe. Cavanaugh answered theologically, telling her that her children were safe in heaven with God, and they held hands and prayed for Cora, Dawson and Callan. Asked by Reddington what else she recalled of their conversations, she said Clancy alluded to having heard a voice which told her that if she did not follow the command, neither she nor her children would be safe, and that Clancy described it as male and persistent and returned to it several times across their visits. NOTE WHAT THE QUOTED TESTIMONY DOES NOT SAY. In the passage every outlet carries, the content of the command is not stated. Several outlets' own summaries — NBC10 Boston, ABC News, Boston 25's filed story and East Idaho News — supply that the voice told her to kill her children and then herself, which is what earlier defense witnesses described, but that is the outlets' gloss and not the sentence they quote. Boston 25 adds that in one of their earliest interactions Clancy seemed confused about what had happened.

HOW MANY VISITS, AND WHERE, IS NOT AGREED. Boston 25 has her giving fourteen visits at Brigham and Women's, further visits at Spaulding Rehabilitation and 200 at Tewksbury State Hospital; ABC News, Rolling Stone and LA Magazine also put the 200 at Tewksbury. The Boston Globe and the Associated Press instead put more than 200 as the total since the killings, and East Idaho News's recap gives about 200 meetings over roughly three years. Both readings are recorded. She told the jury she had continued the visits because they had built a comfortable and respectful rapport and she thought it was in Clancy's interest as she healed, and that Clancy was still in deep grief and suffering; the Commonwealth objected to that characterization. The Globe reports the answer stricken from the record and LA Magazine reports the objection sustained with Reddington told to move on, while Newsweek's account has the judge permitting it. The AP adds that their most recent visit was shortly before the trial began.

THE CROSS-EXAMINATION WAS SHORT AND WENT ENTIRELY TO HER NOTES. Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague established that Cavanaugh writes detailed notes into the Brigham and Women's record documenting each interaction, and that in none of them did she ever write that Clancy told her she heard a voice, or what the voice said. Cavanaugh agreed. Sprague then read what the notes did contain: Clancy's fear that not being able to walk would leave her vulnerable to others; an entry in which Clancy said she was deserving of what had happened; a request for help filling out an application for Social Security disability benefits so she would have an income; entries describing her as hopeful about being discharged to Spaulding and optimistic about her physical progress even though she could not move her legs; and an entry describing her playing a card game with her mother and feeling hopeful. Boston 25 reports Sprague also pressing her on conversations during the Spaulding period that she could not remember. Cavanaugh's answers were that her notes are not verbatim transcripts, that she is not medically trained, that she was not there to evaluate the patient but to bear witness to suffering, and — in LA Magazine's account — that there are limits on what she records from privileged spiritual communication. On redirect Reddington drew the distinction between her own observations and what was said to her in confidence, and she agreed that a word like hopeful in her notes was her own assessment rather than necessarily a quotation. LA Magazine alone reports a recross, in which Sprague pointed out that some entries do carry quotation marks and asked whether those were Clancy's actual words. East Idaho News timestamps a defense redirect ending the questioning at about 10:38 to 10:39.

THE SHORT DAY. Sullivan had told the jurors when they came in that Thursday would be short because of an issue that had nothing to do with the attorneys or the parties, that they were not to speculate about it or hold it against either side, and that if they were going to hold it against anybody they could hold it against him. He told them to expect a longer day Friday and said the case was, if not on schedule, ahead of it. He never said what the issue was. This was the second consecutive day the jury went home early; Wednesday's early end was attributed from the bench to an unforeseen circumstance, and Rolling Stone notes that whether the two are connected has not been reported. East Idaho News's account is the only one that ties Thursday's shortened sitting to an issue carried over from the previous day. After a sidebar following Cavanaugh's departure from the stand, the jury was excused at about 10:39 to 10:46 until 9 a.m. Friday. HOW LONG THEY ACTUALLY SAT IS REPORTED THREE WAYS: CBS Boston says the chaplain was on the stand about twenty minutes, the Hearst blog says the jurors heard about half an hour of testimony, and ABC News and Rolling Stone both say about an hour. The live-blog timestamps fit the shorter figures.

THE CHARGE CONFERENCE. Sullivan took a recess, and he and counsel came back at about 11:30 for what he called a preliminary charge conference. It is the most consequential thing that happened all day. Sprague listed the instructions the Commonwealth wanted — opinion testimony, prior consistent and prior inconsistent statements, redactions, stipulations and consciousness of guilt — and asked that the jury be charged on first- and second-degree murder, with first degree on both theories of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty. She asked for a criminal responsibility instruction with no intoxication component, on the ground that there was no evidence of intoxication by drugs or alcohol at the time of the killings: Clancy was on 10 milligrams of amitriptyline recently raised to 20, with no real evidence she had taken the increase, plus low doses of trazodone and Valium, and the medications the defense points to were prescribed before the McLean admission and had been out of her system for at least three weeks by January 24, 2023. She likened the question to a drunk-driving case: what matters is the state she was in that day. She also opposed involuntary manslaughter, arguing the evidence showed a specific intent to cause death, and noted more evidence about Clancy taking pills after the killings was still expected. Reddington said he did not know whether the government had been listening to the same evidence, called the case clearly an involuntary intoxication defense at least so far as the charge was concerned, and listed the components: over-prescription, side effects, titration, and termination or abrupt cessation of medication against what normal medical advice would be, all of which he said went to a state of mind she had described to many people. He asked for instructions on involuntary manslaughter and on wanton conduct, with the impact of intoxication built in, and said the case could not be tried in a vacuum and the jury should have the option. He also argued about the form of the charge, saying the model instructions guide the elements but the presentation is the judge's, and that he did not want the murder instruction reduced to a checklist. LA Magazine reports Sullivan engaging with the definitional problem himself, asking how intoxication should be defined on this evidence, whether an instruction could be warranted where a defendant took a drug and experienced some effect from it, and observing how hard it is to find a specific definition of intoxication inside the homicide instructions. HE RULED ON NOTHING. He said he would have a rough draft of the instructions for counsel on Friday and that they would have the chance to go through it and put objections or suggestions on the record.

SCHEDULE FROM THE BENCH. Friday would be longer. The defense expected to call one more witness, Dr. Phillip Resnick, a forensic psychiatrist with postpartum expertise, whom CBS Boston reported would appear by Zoom; the Commonwealth expected to call three experts in rebuttal. Sullivan said closing arguments would likely be Monday or Tuesday — CBS Boston frames that as depending on how long the final four witnesses took — and offered the parties a day to marshal their thoughts if they wanted it, noting there had been a great deal of evidence and a great many witnesses. Court recessed just before noon; East Idaho News timestamps the adjournment at 11:51 and the Globe posted the recess at 12:12. WHAT REDDINGTON SAID ABOUT RESTING IS REPORTED THREE DIFFERENT WAYS: ABC News has him saying in court that he expects to rest Friday after one more witness; the Hearst live blog has him telling reporters on his way in that he plans to rest Monday; LA Magazine's subheadline says he expected to rest Thursday. Only the in-court version — Resnick on Friday as the last defense witness — is carried by more than one outlet.

One further gap in the day's reporting: the Globe noted that Dr. Margaret Spinelli, the postpartum specialist the defense had been poised to call when Wednesday ended, had attended sporadically, was present Wednesday morning and was not in the courtroom Thursday, and that it was unclear whether she would testify at all. No outlet reports an explanation.

Index terms

Topics 42

chaplain
spiritual care
command hallucination
male voice
contemporaneous records
chaplaincy notes
cross-examination
redirect
recross
objection sustained
stricken testimony
individual juror voir dire
jurors sworn at sidebar
white noise
short day
unexplained early finish
charging conference
jury instructions
verdict slip
involuntary manslaughter
wanton conduct
involuntary intoxication
criminal responsibility
deliberate premeditation
extreme atrocity or cruelty
consciousness of guilt
amitriptyline
trazodone
Valium
McLean Hospital
Tewksbury State Hospital
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
Brigham and Women's Hospital
SSDI application
defense may rest
possible Commonwealth rebuttal
Dr. Phillip Resnick
Dr. Margaret Spinelli
remote testimony
demonstration outside court
Stand in Peace for Lindsay
crowd size dispute

Reporting relied on

Sources 17

Sources: globe-day-17, b25-chaplain-visits, cbs-day-17, ctinsider-day-17, lamag-day-17, lamag-day-17-rally, eastidaho-day-17, eastidaho-day-17-recap, boston-0820, abc7-day-17, nbc-day-17, nbc-day-17-rally, ap-day-17-rally, wjar-day-17, rollingstone-day-17, newsnation-day-17, newsweek-thursday

Identifiers are the archive's own source keys; each links to the report it names where the archive gives a web address.

Mirror of the public trial reference at clancytrial.org, reproduced with its cautions intact. Nothing here is a conclusion about guilt or responsibility; the defendant is presumed innocent. Corrections: [email protected].