THE fervent group of fans supporting Lindsay Clancy at her bombshell murder trial is creating a serious problem for the American justice system, a leading expert has told The U.S. Sun.
As the world waits for a potential verdict in the troubling case in Massachusetts next week, veteran journalist Dave Wedge cannot shake the feeling that he has worryingly seen this all before.
Wedge’s exhaustive new book, Blizzard of Lies, delves deep into the now-infamous Karen Read murder trial of 2025, which he believes is beginning to bear an eerily striking similarity to Clancy’s attempt to beat a triple murder charge following the deaths of her three children.
Read was acquitted of killing former boyfriend and police officer John O’Keefe, who was found dead outside a party in Canton, near Boston, in January 2022.
The case tore the town apart, with supporters of the Bentley University accounting professor flooding the streets dressed in pink and arriving with pom-poms, deck chairs and signs.
Some of O’Keefe’s family, meanwhile, were angrily confronted in regrettable scenes.
Wedge has seen something similar unfold outside Plymouth Superior Court over the past few weeks.
Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, an old friend of Wedge’s, argues she is not criminally responsible for murder because she was suffering from undiagnosed postpartum psychosis.
His confidence in her claims has inspired hundreds of supporters to flood the area outside the court and back the 36-year-old.
“What people are seeing at Lindsay Clancy, it’s some people around here are referring to it as the Karen Read effect,” Boston-based Wedge said.
“Those people were out there every day at the Karen retrial, both trials, but even louder and bigger.
“At the second trial, it was like a football tailgate.”
Wedge thinks the demonstrations affected the atmosphere surrounding Read’s highly-anticipated trial, but wonders if jurors in Clancy’s case will think the same.
“They’re out there with lawn chairs and bouncy houses and grills and TVs and generators and sitting outside the court cheering her on every time she comes in, screaming and yelling at the O’Keefe family and the witnesses,” he said.
“And the jury walked through this every day. So I have to believe that the jury at least knew that this was a big deal.
“When that verdict was read in the courtroom, the outside erupted in cheers.
“The Lindsay Clancy people are kind of mimicking that. And I’m told that a lot of them are the same people. There’s a lot of those same Free Karen folks that are now out there wearing pink T-shirts for Lindsay Clancy.
“So it’s become a sort of movement, you know?”
Wedge said there is nothing wrong with peaceful activism, but warned that social-media movements can become problematic when unproven theories are treated as fact or victims’ families are targeted.
“I’m all for free protest,” he said. “But when you’re shouting things at victims and being disrespectful of the families of people who’ve lost their loved ones, that’s where you lost me.”
That tension was visible during Clancy’s trial, where hundreds of supporters dressed in pink gathered outside Plymouth Superior Court for a peaceful “Stand in Peace for Lindsay” rally.
Organizers said they wanted to create a calm atmosphere while drawing attention to postpartum mental health.
The trial has also demonstrated the growing challenge courts face in an age when virtually everyone carries a smartphone.
Wedge pointed to a recent attempt by Reddington to call former McLean Hospital employee Emily Thorndike as a witness.
Thorndike had become known for TikTok videos discussing her experiences working at the hospital.
The defense wanted her to discuss staffing and treatment conditions at McLean, where Clancy spent four days shortly before the killings.
But Thorndike had left the hospital about a year before Clancy was admitted and had followed the case online.
Judge William Sullivan questioned whether her opinions belonged before the jury, saying, “This is not TripAdvisor.”
He suggested the defense could instead obtain staffing records or call someone who worked at McLean during Clancy’s hospitalization.
Wedge said the episode illustrates the larger challenge facing the American justice system.
“This has become a circus,” he said. “And it’s become social-media fueled.”
In previous generations, keeping jurors away from outside influence largely meant avoiding newspapers, television reports or conversations about a case.
Today, Wedge said, that task is much harder.
“Now everyone’s got this in their hands and it’s 24/7,” he said. “You don’t even have to go on news sites. Your friends are sending memes. It’s on Facebook. It’s everywhere you go. You can’t escape it.”
Massachusetts has become a particularly visible stage for this phenomenon.
The state has a long history of high-profile criminal cases, from the Whitey Bulger investigation, to the Charles Stuart case and Read’s prosecution.
Wedge believes the region’s strong sense of community can contribute to the intensity surrounding controversial cases.
“We’re very tribal people here in Boston,” he said. “We protect each other, we look out for each other.”
That loyalty, however, can quickly boil over when people believe someone they support is being treated unfairly.
The Read case, according to Wedge, may have ignited anger among her most fervent supporters.
They watched their campaign grow from courtroom demonstrations into a national movement, ultimately celebrating after Read was acquitted of the most serious charges.
Wedge thinks it set a dangerous precedent, making people believe activism and public pressure can seriously influence a legal outcome.
“I think people saw success,” he said. “They saw that what they did worked. They saw that they were out there making noise and having their voices heard.
“And Karen Read won her case and was freed. So I think it gave people a feeling of control, right or wrong, whether that’s accurate or not, that’s how these people feel.”
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16915627/lindsay-clancy-karen-read-effect/
