Jury in Lindsay Clancy triple-murder trial resumes third day of deliberations
Jurors resume third day of deliberations in Lindsay Clancy trial, deciding if she is guilty of murder, manslaughter, or not responsible due to postpartum psychosis.
Jurors in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, returned for a third day of deliberations on Monday to decide whether she should be held criminally responsible for the deaths of her three young children in 2023. The case has drawn widespread attention to the issue of maternal mental health after childbirth.
Clancy, 36, has admitted to strangling her children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan — with exercise bands in the basement of their Duxbury, Massachusetts home on January 24, 2023. She then attempted suicide by cutting herself and jumping from a second-floor window, and is now paralyzed from the waist down.
The trial, held in Plymouth County Superior Court, lasted five weeks and featured testimony from more than 70 prosecution witnesses and 10 defense witnesses, including Clancy's then-husband. Clancy did not testify, but jurors heard from medical professionals, friends, and relatives about her deteriorating mental health in the months before the killings.
Her defense argues that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, a rare and severe mental illness that can occur after childbirth, and that she had lost touch with reality. They note that she had been hospitalized in a psychiatric facility and was discharged less than three weeks before the incident.
Prosecutors, however, contend that Clancy was fully aware of her actions and made a deliberate choice to kill her children because she was depressed and tired of living, before attempting suicide. Medical experts for both sides disagreed over her mental state at the time of the killings.
The jury can return one of three verdicts: guilty of murder, guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter, or not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility. If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life in prison. If acquitted, she could be released or committed to a mental health facility.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text the U.S. National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.