Lindsay Clancy Should Face Public Execution, Nancy Mace Says - Newsweek

Representative Nancy Mace has said that Lindsay Clancy should face a public execution, days after a Massachusetts jury failed to reach a verdict on whether she was criminally responsible for killing her three children.

"Her children are dead, she should be dead too," the South Carolina Republican told TMZ on Monday. "She should get the death penalty...It should be public, it should be a public execution."

Mace's proposal could not be imposed on Clancy in Massachusetts, which has not carried out an execution since 1947 and whose highest court struck down the state's capital punishment law in 1984. If convicted of first-degree murder, Clancy could instead be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Mace added it "could be by firearm, it could be electric chair, I don’t really care." Mace said last month that she will not run for elected office in the future.

The outgoing congresswoman continued that Clancy’s execution would be a “warning to women everywhere [that] you don’t kill your kids.”

The intervention comes after the judge in Clancy's trial declared a mistrial earlier this month after jurors reported they could not reach a unanimous verdict.

Clancy, 36, does not dispute killing her children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, in January 2023. She had pleaded not guilty, and her attorneys argued that she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis at the time of the strangulation deaths and her attempted death by suicide. A retrial remains possible, but prosecutors have not yet announced a decision.

Mace is not the first elected official to demand capital punishment in response to the case. Representative Clay Fuller, a Georgia Republican, said after the mistrial that when someone "brutally murder[s]" three children, "you deserve the death penalty." He also called for federal restrictions on the insanity defense.

The jurors, who were composed of nine women and three men, said they had an 11 to 1 majority in favor of acquitting Clancy by reason of insanity due to postpartum psychosis before Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial. After the judge’s decision on September 4, Clancy returned to the psychiatric facility where she is currently being held.

It is unclear whether the case will be retried, as District Attorney Timothy Cruz has not yet announced a decision. A court hearing is set for September 29 at Plymouth Superior Court.

President Donald Trump has called the case a “tragedy,” telling reporters on September 4: “Look, [Clancy] did a horrible, horrible thing. Can’t be worse, but you’ll find out what the price to pay is. There’ll be a price. It’s going to be mental institution or jail or something, but I guess they’re going to go through another trial. It’s too bad.”

Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, asked Trump to pardon Clancy; however, the case was tried in Massachusetts’ state criminal justice system, and the president’s pardon powers apply only to the U.S. federal justice system.

Trump pointed out this discrepancy to reporters on Sunday, saying the case is “actually a state situation, not a federal."

“It’s a very sad situation,” the president added. “I certainly heard that, but look, it’s very sad. There is no winner there. There’s no win no matter what you do. Three children are dead.”

Contact Newsweek editor on this story: Matthew Robinson, Edward Pearcey and Sam Wilson.