True Crime

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Crimes of the Century CLE: The Lindsay Clancy Trial - Investigation, Trial Strategy, Forensics, and Ethics

Credits Available
Credit Status Total
Alaska CLE Reciprocity 3 Total
Alabama CLE Approved 3 Total
Arkansas CLE Approved 3 Total
Arizona CLE Approved 3 Total
California CLE Approved 3 Total
Colorado CLE Approved 4 Total
Connecticut CLE Approved 3 Total
Delaware CLE Pending 3 Total
Florida CLE Pending 3.5 Total
Georgia CLE Approved 3 Total
Hawaii CLE Approved 3 Total
Iowa CLE Pending 3 Total
Idaho CLE Pending 3 Total
Illinois CLE Approved 3 Total
Indiana CLE Approved 3 Total
Kansas CLE Pending 3.5 Total
Kentucky CLE Pending 3 Total
Louisiana CLE Approved 3 Total
Maine CLE Approved 3 Total
Minnesota CLE Pending 3 Total
Missouri CLE Approved 3.6 Total
Northern Mariana Islands CLE Approved 3 Total
Mississippi CLE Approved 3 Total
Montana CLE Pending 3 Total
North Carolina CLE Approved 3 Total
North Dakota CLE Pending 3 Total
Nebraska CLE Pending 3 Total
New Hampshire CLE Approved 3 Total
New Jersey CLE Approved 3.6 Total
New Mexico CLE Approved 3 Total
Nevada CLE Approved 3 Total
New York CLE Approved 3.5 Total
Ohio CLE Pending 3 Total
Oklahoma CLE Approved 3.5 Total
Oregon CLE Pending 3 Total
Pennsylvania CLE Approved 3 Total
Rhode Island CLE Approved 3.5 Total
South Carolina CLE Approved 3 Total
Tennessee CLE Pending 3 Total
Texas CLE Approved 3 Total
Utah CLE Approved 3 Total
Virginia CLE Pending 3 Total
Vermont CLE Approved 3 Total
Washington CLE Approved 3 Total
Wisconsin CLE Pending 3.5 Total
West Virginia CLE Approved 3.6 Total
Wyoming CLE Approved 3 Total
Live Online
3 hours
Joel Oster
With Joel L. Oster from Comedian of Law, LLC

Tue, Oct 13, 00:00 AM – 00:00 PM

Product ID 103005

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Overview

When the Trial Isn't About What Happened, But Why

On a January evening in 2023, inside a quiet home on Summer Street in Duxbury, Massachusetts, a young mother did the unthinkable—and then tried to end her own life by leaping from a second-story window. Lindsay Clancy survived the fall, but the injuries left her paralyzed from the waist down. Her three children—Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and baby Callan, just 8 months old—did not survive. What followed was not a whodunit, but something arguably more unsettling: a case where the facts of what happened were never seriously in dispute, and everything hinged on the question of why. Was this a calculated act, or a mind shattered by an illness few fully understand?

By the time Clancy's trial opened in Plymouth Superior Court in July 2026, the case had already become a flashpoint in the national conversation around postpartum mental illness. Her defense leaned entirely into an insanity plea, calling psychiatric experts to testify that she was in the grip of postpartum psychosis—an exceedingly rare but well-documented condition—at the moment she acted. Prosecutors countered with their own battery of mental health experts, arguing she knew exactly what she was doing. Add to that a legal skirmish over a journalist's notes from an interview with Clancy's husband, and a jury deadlocked after days of deliberation —and you have a trial that plays out less like a courtroom drama and more like a real-time referendum on where the line between illness and culpability actually sits.

This class dissects the Lindsay Clancy case as a masterclass in trying an insanity defense: how attorneys wage a battle of dueling experts, how they humanize—or fail to humanize—a client accused of the unthinkable, and how they navigate a media environment hungry for a verdict before the jury has one. We'll walk through the trial strategy on both sides, the ethical tightropes counsel had to walk, and the practice lessons litigators can take into their own high-stakes, high-scrutiny cases. Register today!

This program is designed in conjunction with attorney Joel Oster, Comedian of Law and True Crime Podcaster.

Abbreviated Agenda

  1. The Charges and Procedural Posture
  2. Facts and Investigation
  3. Pretrial Suppression, Admissibility, and Constitutional Issues
  4. Opening Statements and the Competing Theories
  5. Key Witnesses and Forensic Evidence
  6. Trial Turning Points and Rebuttal
  7. Ethics Issues Surfaced Throughout the Case

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Related Topics

Product ID 103005

Credit Details

Credits Available
Credit Status Total
Alaska CLE Reciprocity 3 Total
Alabama CLE Approved 3 Total
Arkansas CLE Approved 3 Total
Arizona CLE Approved 3 Total
California CLE Approved 3 Total
Colorado CLE Approved 4 Total
Connecticut CLE Approved 3 Total
Delaware CLE Pending 3 Total
Florida CLE Pending 3.5 Total
Georgia CLE Approved 3 Total
Hawaii CLE Approved 3 Total
Iowa CLE Pending 3 Total
Idaho CLE Pending 3 Total
Illinois CLE Approved 3 Total
Indiana CLE Approved 3 Total
Kansas CLE Pending 3.5 Total
Kentucky CLE Pending 3 Total
Louisiana CLE Approved 3 Total
Maine CLE Approved 3 Total
Minnesota CLE Pending 3 Total
Missouri CLE Approved 3.6 Total
Northern Mariana Islands CLE Approved 3 Total
Mississippi CLE Approved 3 Total
Montana CLE Pending 3 Total
North Carolina CLE Approved 3 Total
North Dakota CLE Pending 3 Total
Nebraska CLE Pending 3 Total
New Hampshire CLE Approved 3 Total
New Jersey CLE Approved 3.6 Total
New Mexico CLE Approved 3 Total
Nevada CLE Approved 3 Total
New York CLE Approved 3.5 Total
Ohio CLE Pending 3 Total
Oklahoma CLE Approved 3.5 Total
Oregon CLE Pending 3 Total
Pennsylvania CLE Approved 3 Total
Rhode Island CLE Approved 3.5 Total
South Carolina CLE Approved 3 Total
Tennessee CLE Pending 3 Total
Texas CLE Approved 3 Total
Utah CLE Approved 3 Total
Virginia CLE Pending 3 Total
Vermont CLE Approved 3 Total
Washington CLE Approved 3 Total
Wisconsin CLE Pending 3.5 Total
West Virginia CLE Approved 3.6 Total
Wyoming CLE Approved 3 Total
Select Jurisdiction
CLE

Agenda

All times are shown in

  1. The Charges and Procedural Posture

    1. The Charges and the Central Dispute: Criminal Responsibility, Not the Underlying Acts
    2. Understanding the Massachusetts Insanity and Criminal-Responsibility Framework
    3. Why This Case Presents an Unusual Trial Posture

  2. Facts and Investigation

    1. Reconstructing the January 24, 2023 Timeline
    2. Two Competing Narratives Emerge From the Same Facts
    3. Inside the Investigation: Evidence Recovery and Preservation

  3. Pretrial Suppression, Admissibility, and Constitutional Issues

    1. The 911 Call and Autopsy Photographs: Admissibility Fights
    2. The Jury View of the Former Residence
    3. Blood-Pattern Testimony and Expert Disclosure Disputes

  4. Opening Statements and the Competing Theories

    1. The Prosecution's Theory: Planning, Organization, and Intent
    2. The Defense Theory: Postpartum Deterioration, Psychosis, and Capacity
    3. Where the Two Theories Directly Collide

  5. Key Witnesses and Forensic Evidence

    1. Patrick Clancy (Lindsay’s Husband)
    2. Dr. Justin Brower
    3. Ian Whiffin
    4. Other Expert and Lay Witnesses

  6. Trial Turning Points and Rebuttal

    1. The Digital Evidence Disputes
    2. Defense Experts vs. Prosecution Rebuttal Experts
    3. The Mistrial Controversy and What It Signals About Trial Risk

  7. Ethics Issues Surfaced Throughout the Case

    1. Model Rule 1.1: How Much Psychiatric Fluency Does Trial Counsel Actually Need?
    2. Model Rule 1.3: Diligence in Investigating Alternative Explanations and Medical Records
    3. Model Rule 3.1: Meritorious Claims in Suppression Motions and Expert Challenges
    4. Model Rule 3.4: Fairness Obligations in Discovery and Evidence Handling
    5. Model Rule 3.3: Candor Toward the Tribunal When an Expert's Opinion Shifts
    6. Model Rule 3.5: Impartiality, Decorum, and Communicating With Jurors
    7. Closing Arguments, Prosecutorial Ethics, and Publicity
    8. Model Rule 3.4(e): Limits on Closing Argument Content
    9. Model Rule 3.8: Special Responsibilities of the Prosecutor
    10. Model Rule 4.1 and Model Rule 8.4: Truthfulness and Misconduct Standards
    11. Model Rule 3.6: Trial Publicity in a Nationally Covered Case 

Who Should Attend

This true-crime legal course is designed for attorneys. Paralegals and legal staff will also benefit.

Speakers

Joel L Oster
Joel L.
Oster
Comedian of Law, LLC
Speaker bio
Joel L Oster

Joel L. Oster

Comedian of Law, LLC
Joel Oster

is a litigator, national speaker, podcaster and stand-up comic. He is in private practice specializing in constitutional law, appellate advocacy, and attorney ethics. Mr. Oster regularly litigates First Amendment issues and has been lead counsel on two cases that ended up in the U.S. Supreme Court. He has argued a case before the United States District Court for the Western District of New York and the Second Circuit and was part of a legal team that successfully defended a case in the U.S. Supreme Court. He's also prevailed as lead counsel in defending a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Mr. Oster has spoken to thousands of attorneys across the United States and brings their combined practical perspectives to his seminars. He has presented at numerous bench and bar conferences and co-hosts the podcast DeBriefing the Law with Chris Marohn. The podcast covers current legal news and true crimes using their brand of humor. From the Supreme Court to O.J. Simpson, no legal topic is off-limits. Most importantly he is also a stand-up comic. Even though he has argued before numerous appellate courts, including Judge Calabresi of the Second Circuit, he said nothing compares to the nerves of trying to make a room full of drunk college kids laugh. He headlined the comedy tour "Presumed Funny" which featured random musings about the legal profession. Mr. Oster earned his J.D. degree from the University of Kansas School of Law. He is admitted to the bar in Kansas, Missouri, Florida and numerous federal courts.

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