US President Donald Trump has said he will not intervene in the case of Lindsay Clancy, a Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three young children in January 2023.
Clancy, 36, faces three counts of first-degree murder over the deaths of her children, five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan.
Her attorney, Kevin Reddington, had publicly appealed to Trump to consider pardoning Clancy after her murder trial ended in a mistrial earlier this month.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump described the case as a “very sad situation” and said it was a state matter rather than a federal one.
“It’s a very sad situation. There is no winner there. There is no win no matter what you do. Three children are dead. So, I don’t know. It’s actually a state situation, you know, not a federal,” Trump said.
Reddington had made the appeal during an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America, asking Trump to consider his client’s circumstances and what she had been through.
“Mr. President, I would hope that you would consider this young lady, the type of person she is and what she’s been through, and consider a pardon,” the lawyer said.
A presidential pardon generally applies to federal offences, while Clancy’s case was prosecuted under Massachusetts state law. Trump nevertheless said the matter should be resolved at the state level.
“He’s a good attorney. I’ve heard from other people he’s a very good attorney,” Trump said of Reddington.
“I hope they can work it out. That’s something they have to work out … There is no win there.”
Clancy’s defence has argued that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, a severe psychiatric condition that can cause a person to lose contact with reality after childbirth. Prosecutors, however, argued that the killings were premeditated.
After the deaths of her children, Clancy attempted suicide and sustained injuries that left her paralysed.
Her first trial ended in a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict. The jury was split 11-1, with 11 jurors favouring an acquittal on the grounds that Clancy was not criminally responsible for the killings.
The state could now seek a retrial.