“Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent,” Scottish philosopher and economist Adam Smith said — and if modern history were to test that theory, the Lindsay Clancy murder trial would be, for lack of a better term, Exhibit A.
The courtroom drama ended Friday in a mistrial, and the jury appears to have narrowly avoided the miscarriage of justice — and the “cruelty to the innocent” — that would have resulted had they returned with a verdict declaring her “not criminally responsible” for her actions.
