Lindsay Clancy Jury Dynamics: Prosecutor Predicts Unique Female Influence on Verdict

A legislator from South Carolina, known for prosecuting Susan Smith in her notorious double-murder trial, suggests that women on the jury for Lindsay Clancy could be a surprising factor. Contrary to common expectations, they might not be as empathetic towards her situation.

Lindsay Clancy, aged 36, faces three first-degree murder charges related to the tragic deaths of her children—Cora, Dawson, and Callan, all under the age of six—who were found strangled in their home in January 2023.

Her legal defense claims that Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time of the tragic incident.

The trial is set to wrap up soon, with testimonies expected to conclude on Wednesday. Closing arguments are scheduled for Thursday, leading up to jury deliberation. The jury consists of 18 individuals—12 women and six men—with only 12 participating in deliberations, while the remainder will be alternates and excused beforehand.

Smith is the South Carolina mother who was convicted of killing her two young sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander, by strapping them into her car and letting it roll into a lake. Prosecutors argued she killed them in part because the man she was romantically involved with didn’t want a relationship with women who had kids. She was sentenced to life in prison.

Rep. Tommy Pope, who is currently the speaker pro tempore for the South Carolina House of Representatives, prosecuted Smith and told News Media that women on the jury might be less sympathetic to Clancy than people think.

“For the most part, the women were the ones that said, you know, when I had my kids, I went through hell, or I went through depression, or I battled this, or I was overwhelmed. But they’re the most important thing in my life,” Pope said. “And so, strange twist, while a woman may have even faced postpartum depression, she may have overcome it and then be less sympathetic to Clancy.”

On the flip side, Pope said Clancy’s current physical condition might complicate things for the prosecution in an unexpected way.

“A weird mix, too, is having her in the courtroom, whether she intentionally injured herself or, as the prosecution said, tried to slide down and just got injured. You have somebody that’s now paralyzed, which obviously doesn’t equate to killing three children,” Pope said. “But some jurors, and I would think maybe even more so men, would think, well, she’s already punished. She’s in a wheelchair. So in a strange twist, it could almost be the opposite.”

Prosecutors on Tuesday continued to challenge the psychosis argument that Clancy’s defense attorney says frees her from criminal responsibility for her children’s deaths.

Gregory Saathoff, a forensic psychiatrist at the University of Virginia who consults for the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, told jurors that Clancy’s self-described auditory hallucinations were “very unusual.”

“What was significant to me is that she had not spoken about hearing voices before to any of the mental health professionals, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, physicians and staff in the emergency department, or at McLean,” Saathoff said.

“This was the first time she reported that, and that she experienced an auditory hallucination, according to what she told me. So that was unusual. And then what was very unusual was the fact that the voice stopped with the strangling of her youngest son,” he added.

In another blow to Clancy’s defense, prosecutors asked psychologist Kirk Heilbrun whether someone hearing a command hallucination could still conform their conduct to the law.

“In some cases they can,” he responded.

Earlier in the week, Clancy’s defense called its own experts and argued she’s not criminally responsible. Dr. Phillip Resnick, a forensic psychiatrist, testified that Clancy killed her children while she was experiencing a “command hallucination,” stating she felt like “a puppet.”

“Not only did she hear a command, but she felt that her body was taken over by an external force where she was in a dream state and did not have control of her own body. It was almost like she was a puppet and someone else was pulling the strings,” Resnick said.

Outside the courtroom on Tuesday, one person told News Media she was there in support of Lindsay Clancy because “I’ve always been aware that mental health is something that’s woefully in need of funding, education, all that.”

“This trial has really made a lot of us realize just how bad things are. Obviously, a really sad story and hard to listen to at times. But if this moves the needle just a teeny tiny bit, and women start to experience more support, then I’m here for that. I was just telling my friend that when I had my children and left the hospital, nobody really said anything about postpartum, you know, be on the lookout for things. And…you know, we just had to figure it out ourselves. It shouldn’t be that way. And I hope things change,” the woman said.