Woman whose case is widely compared to Lindsay Clancy's has just won a retrial
Warning: This article contains mentions of child death and mental health issues which some readers may find distressing
As eyes across the world are fixated on the Lindsay Clancy triple murder trial, which has seen the jury fail to come to a verdict twice now, a woman who's case is eerily similar has just won a retrial.
Just one month before Clancy's three children were killed and she attempted to take her own life in January 2023, Latarsha Sanders, of Brockton, Massachusetts, was convicted of two counts of murder in the deaths of her two sons.
Latarsha Sanders' crime and the trial that followed
It was in February 2018 when Sanders stabbed her sons, eight-year-old Edson 'Marlon' Brito and five-year-old La'Son Brito, to death in their home, according to court records.
The boys were found in separate bedrooms, swaddled in sheets and blankets, having suffered two multiple, horrific knife wounds.
Advert
Though the mother hadn't previously been diagnosed with mental health issues, she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia after her arrest, with an expert witness who examined her stating in her trial that she had been 'grossly psychotic' when she carried out the murders.
In the end, Sanders was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder when the trial concluded in December 2022, a verdict which was based on theories of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty, the court records state.
She received two life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Sanders' lawyer, Robert F. Shaw Jr., described her trial as 'a fundamentally unfair legal proceeding' for 'a mother who was suffering from profound mental illness and experiencing a psychotic state completely untethered from reality'.
Latarsha Sanders' trial is now being overturned
Now, it has been reported that the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, the state’s highest court, overturned Sanders’s murder conviction on appeal, and has ordered that she be granted a new trial.
CBS News reports that the Court vacated the conviction on 6 August, saying that Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan - the same judge in the Clancy case - was wrong when he would not allow the jury to hear about her mental illness while she was awaiting trial in prison and in a state psychiatric hospital.
"We hold that the exclusion of the defendant's relevant medical records relating to the diagnoses or treatment of mental illness constituted prejudicial error, and as a result, the defendant is entitled to a new trial," the ruling said.
'I am happy for my mom'
It is a decision Sanders’ grieving family had hoped for.
"I am happy for my mom," her daughter Shalea told the Boston Globe. "I’m so relieved."
At the time that Sanders' case was tried, Shaw said 'there was limited public understanding of the profound mental-health issues involved', adding: "Perhaps the increased public discussion and awareness we are seeing now will lead to greater understanding and a greater willingness to consider these difficult issues fairly."
What is the latest in Lindsay Clancy's trial?
While Clancy has never disputed the accusation that she killed her three children - Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan - in January 2023 before attempting suicide, her defence, led by attorney Kevin Reddington, argued that she suffered from serious mental health issues and is therefore not criminally responsible.
It is now the fifth day of deliberations of the incredibly emotional trial, which has seen the jury fail to reach a verdict twice. If the jury ultimately cannot reach a verdict, the judge can declare a mistrial and the trial will end with no decision.
If this happens, the case will essentially go back to the same status as before the trial, meaning Clancy will be charged with three-counts of murder and held at a psychiatric facility.
In terms of going forward with Clancy's conviction, a new trial with a fresh jury could be triggered, or a plea deal could be offered.
Topics: US News, Mental Health, Lindsay Clancy, Crime
Emily Puckering