09/12/2026
On July 31, 1968, Ronald Reagan told the Republican platform committee in Miami, "We must reject the idea that every time a law is broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions."
Some things never change.
Reagan was right then. The words are doubly true now. Our justice system too often favors the criminal and does injustice to the victim. Mercy to the guilty is injustice to the innocent.
Lindsay Clancy strangled her three children in Duxbury, Massachusetts, on January 24, 2023. Cora was 5. Dawson was 3. Callan was 8 months old.
She admitted it. On September 4, 2026, a Massachusetts jury hung. Eleven jurors wanted her found not responsible. One would not get past the fact she killed those children.
Juror Kellie Farina said the holdout "had the hardest time getting off the fact that Lindsay viciously killed her children."
Other jurors were angry he would not move on from the murders. That is the slope. The dead children become a backdrop. The killer becomes the case.
Equal application of the law means the person who did the act answers for the act.
It does not mean a committee of experts explains the crime until the victims disappear. Society did not wrap those exercise bands around three little necks. She did.
When courts treat the offender as the injured party, the innocent lose twice. Once in the basement. Again in the courtroom. Accountability is not cruelty. It is the only justice the dead still get.
Limited government still has a job. Protect the innocent. Punish the person who did the harm.
The Founders wrote a government of laws. They did not write a therapy session for people who break them. A country that will not name a lawbreaker will not protect a child.
Do you believe a person who kills needs to be held accountable regardless of their mental state at the time?
