Lindsay Clancy Case: Jury Evaluates Psychosis Defense Claims

For those struggling with suicidal thoughts, reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for support.

In a high-profile courtroom drama, the prosecutor famous for convicting Susan Smith, who tragically took the lives of her two sons, claims Lindsay Clancy’s defense fell short of evidencing a “break with reality.” As the jury readies to deliberate after Thursday’s closing arguments, this assertion remains pivotal.

Lindsay Clancy, aged 36, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder related to the tragic deaths of her children—Cora, Dawson, and Callan—who were found strangled in the family home in January 2023. With the prosecution having concluded its rebuttal by Wednesday afternoon, closing arguments are set for Thursday, setting the stage for the jury’s in-depth deliberations.

Her legal defense insists that Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the tragic moment she took her children’s lives, a point of contention adamantly challenged by the prosecuting team.

Smith, a South Carolina mother, was convicted of killing her two young sons — 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander — after she strapped them into her car and allowed it to roll into a lake. Prosecutors contended she killed the boys at least in part because the man she was romantically involved with did not want a relationship with a woman who had children. She received a life prison sentence.

Smith’s defense contended she was in a fragile mental state and suffered from severe depression, characterizing the act as a failed suicide attempt in which she had intended to end her own life along with her sons’.

As jurors begin to deliberate on Thursday, Rep. Tommy Pope, who is currently the speaker pro tempore for the South Carolina House of Representatives and prosecuted Smith, told News Media he thinks Clancy failed to prove she had a break from reality.

“So as a prosecutor, what you try to do, and you’ve seen it in this case, is the prosecutor will point out all the things that she did that it can be mundane. Sometimes people watch and go, why do they care that she ordered dinner? Why do they hear that she sent her husband away or was able to dial the phone or those things? But that’s what you’re looking at. Was it a break from reality? Or did she just commit a horrible, horrible crime and make a horrible, horrible choice?” Pope said. “In these circumstances, Clancy had, like I said, all the prior treatment. But I still don’t really see the break with reality.”

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However, Pope said that one of the things that “jumps out” for him is a clear lack of motive in Clancy killing her children, which was present in the Smith murders.

“In this one, it’s hard to see the end game,” Pope said, referring to the murder case against Clancy. “What was her goal after? Let’s say that even jumping out the window was a suicidal gesture, which obviously went terribly wrong for her, if that was the case. But what was her end game? And that’s one disconnect I see.”

Gregory Saathoff, a University of Virginia forensic psychiatrist who consults for the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, testified Wednesday that financial pressure was among the stressors Clancy faced and may help explain why she killed her children.

Saathoff said Clancy felt her “brain had been damaged” and could no longer do the work she loved or help support her family, which left her with a sense of being a burden.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington questioned Saathoff about his experience with terrorism, drawing from him an acknowledgment that sleep deprivation is employed as a form of torture and that severe insomnia “can actually lead to psychosis.” Saathoff confirmed the point, saying, “Yes, it’s possible.”