PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial were set Friday to resume determining whether she was responsible for her actions when she killed her three children in 2023.
Clancy admits that she strangled her children, but her lawyer said she did it because she'd lost her grip on reality due to postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness that can follow childbirth. The killings followed a monthslong period during which Clancy had sought treatment for her worsening mental health, including a stay in a psychiatric hospital.
Prosecutors said Clancy knew what she was doing. They say she killed the children because she was depressed and tired of living, and made a conscious choice to take her children with her before killing herself.
The jury met for a few hours Thursday without reaching a verdict. Members of the panel could find her guilty of murder or the lesser crime of manslaughter, or acquit her if they decide she wasn't in control of herself due to her psychiatric problems.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.
Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility. She did not testify during the trial, but jurors heard at length from medical professionals who had treated her, as well as from friends and relatives she'd told about her mental health problems.
Jurors also heard from medical experts called by prosecutors and the defense, who disagreed about her likely state of mind when she killed her children Cora, Dawson and Callan Clancy, ages 5, 3 and 8 months, at their Massachusetts home.
The killings happened less than three weeks after Clancy was discharged from a psychiatric hospital. She cut herself and then jumped from a second-floor window after strangling the children, but survived. She remains paralyzed from the waist down.
