PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial took a pivotal turn as prosecutors argued that her tragic actions were driven by personal anguish rather than deficiencies in mental health care. On Thursday, during closing statements, the jury heard this before embarking on the first day of deliberations in her high-profile case.
“Choosing to take her children with her was a conscious decision,” asserted prosecutor Jennifer Sprague. “It’s an unsettling thought, the notion that a mother could opt for such an act.”
Sprague emphasized, “It was a decision she made.”
Clancy’s mental state has become the focal point of this highly scrutinized trial, which has cast a spotlight on postpartum mental health issues. The case has ignited intense public debate about whether she should face criminal responsibility for the deaths that occurred in January 2023.
The defense paints a vastly different picture, claiming that Clancy was in the grips of postpartum psychosis when she committed the acts. Her attorney argued that Clancy was a devoted mother whose mental condition plummeted as she sought, but failed to receive, adequate help. This rare condition is typically associated with stress, sleep deprivation, and hormonal changes after childbirth.
“She was reaching out for help and she wasn’t getting it,” defense attorney Kevin Reddington told jurors.
The jury met for a few hours Thursday afternoon and will resume deliberations Friday morning.
Clancy, who did not testify during the monthlong trial, has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility. Clancy, now 36, had sought treatment from multiple providers in the months before the killings and was prescribed various drugs.
Less than three weeks after being discharged from a psychiatric hospital, she killed Cora, Dawson and Callan Clancy, ages 5, 3 and 8 months, at the family’s Massachusetts home. She then jumped from a second-floor window and remains paralyzed from the waist down.
Lindsay Clancy was depressed, prosecutor says
During more than four weeks of testimony, jurors heard differing views from medical experts about Clancy’s mental state after Callan’s birth.
Reddington said her condition worsened “because of the damned medicine and the lousy medical care that she got.”
Clancy dabbed her eyes with a tissue and put a hand to her forehead as the prosecution described how she killed her children and confronted a central question in the case: Why would a mother who loved her children kill them?
“She was depressed. She was exhausted. She was done. She didn’t want to try anymore. She felt damaged,” Sprague said. “But those kids, those kids were her protective factor. Those kids were keeping her from ending her misery.”
Sprague said the case shouldn’t be a referendum on the nation’s mental healthcare system or how it treats women. She argued that Clancy had access to many providers and a wealth of family support.
If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she still could be committed to a state mental health facility.
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Mental health is at the heart of Clancy trial
Clancy’s decision not to tell her mental health providers about thoughts she had in December 2022 of harming her children showed that she understood those thoughts were wrong, Sprague said.
She also made sure she had just enough time to kill her children on Jan. 24, 2023, Sprague said, by sending her husband to pick up dinner and medicine for one of the kids.
The prosecutor acknowledged that Clancy sought help for her mental health struggles, but said she did not always take medications as prescribed or give her providers complete and accurate information.
Both Clancy’s mother and sister testified in the trial that she became anxious, paranoid and suicidal.
Lindsay Clancy lived for her kids, attorney says
Clancy’s attorney criticized the prosecution’s case and raised doubts about the police investigation while painting Clancy as a good mother.
He said prosecutors tried to suggest her suicide attempt wasn’t serious. “You know that is not what happened,” he said.
He said investigators didn’t take pictures or test blood found at the home. He held up a copy of the book “Good Moms have Scary Thoughts” that investigators found at the Clancy house. He said a mental healthcare provider gave it to her.
He showed jurors a small “wish box” that Clancy and then-husband Patrick bought on their honeymoon. Over the years, the couple filled the box with slips of paper wishing to have healthy, successful kids, Reddington said as Lindsay Clancy wiped away tears.
Reddington told the jury that Clancy “lived for her kids” but that after she started seeing a doctor, “It was not a wonderful life anymore.”
“You have the medical records. You heard the testimony. You know her concerns. You know her fears,” he said.
Willingham reported from Boston. Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
If you are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises please call or text the new three digit code at 988. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org or dial the current toll free number 800-273-8255