A Wellesley mother who admitted strangling her two young children wants prosecutors to back off first-degree murder charges, and her lawyer is openly leveraging the Lindsay Clancy mistrial to make it happen — a play no defendant without money and connections could afford.
Janette MacAusland, 49, faces two counts of first-degree murder for the April killings of Kai, 7, and Ella, 6. Police say she confessed plainly: "I strangled them and then I tried to kill myself." She told her aunt she "wanted the 3 of us to go to God together, but it didn't work," according to a police report cited by MassLive. The facts are not in dispute. What's in dispute is whether a Wellesley acupuncturist gets treated differently than anyone else who confesses to murdering children.
Her attorney, Joseph Krowski Jr., isn't making that case in closed-door plea negotiations. He's making it in the press. Speaking outside Dedham District Court last Thursday, Krowski said there's "been a discussion, a discourse that's opened up in this country about whether or not we want to criminalize mental illness," according to the Boston Globe, as reported by MassLive. He said he hopes outgoing Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey — or his likely successor, Djuna Perkins, who won a competitive Democratic primary — will "take a different approach to how we prosecute women suffering from profound mental health problems."
Krowski insisted "this is not Lindsay Clancy 2.0" — then immediately invoked the Clancy case as a reason prosecutors should reconsider. Clancy, 36, admitted strangling her three children in Duxbury in 2023. Her trial ended in a mistrial last week after seven days of deliberation. The Guardian reported that 11 of 12 jurors were prepared to find her not guilty by reason of insanity; a single holdout blocked the verdict. Clancy's attorney, Kevin Reddington, has now asked the judge to declare her not guilty outright, arguing prosecutors failed to prove she knew her actions were wrong.
The New York Post reported that Reddington dismissed concerns the defense could inspire copycats. That claim strains credulity. In September, an Illinois woman, Corie Walsh — who had been texting friends about the Clancy case — was arrested for allegedly hanging her 2-year-old son before attempting suicide. Walsh's lawyer called the copycat framing "sickening" but confirmed his client was diagnosed with "grief psychotic disorder." Whether these cases reflect contagion or coincidence, the pattern is undeniable.
MacAusland has been held without bail since her May arraignment. Krowski moved to dismiss the case Thursday; Judge Jeanmarie Carroll denied the request. Krowski also complained that prosecutors, four months in, still don't have their evidence ready to move the case to Superior Court.
Here is the question no one in the press corps asked: how many indigent defendants in Norfolk County get their attorneys holding press conferences urging the DA to reconsider charges on philosophical grounds? MacAusland lives in one of the wealthiest towns in Massachusetts. Her lawyer is publicly lobbying the incoming DA — a progressive who won a Democratic primary — to adopt a softer approach. Ordinary defendants don't get that kind of advocacy. They get a public defender, a plea deal, and a sentence.
The Clancy near-acquittal has already shifted the landscape. Whether that shift applies equally — or only to defendants who can afford the right lawyer and the right narrative — is the open question.
