PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — The defense began calling witnesses Monday in the emotionally charged trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mom who has admitted killing her three young children but blamed her actions on her failing mental health.
The prosecution rested its case earlier in the day after three weeks of testimony. A former coworker of Clancy and Clancy's sister were among the first witnesses called to the stand.
Prosecutors argue Clancy, a former
labor and delivery nurse, was an intentional killer who contrived to get her husband out of the house by sending him to get takeout and to the pharmacy on Jan. 24, 2023. Then, she strangled the children before attempting to kill herself.
Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington does not dispute that she killed the children. But he says the jury should not hold her criminally responsible because she had postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth. He said she also had bipolar disorder and that antidepressants prescribed after the birth of her third child worsened her condition.
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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.
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The jury has heard so far from witnesses who demonstrated that Clancy had sought treatment for severe mental health problems, including admitting herself to a psychiatric hospital. But witnesses also noted Clancy wouldn't always take the medications prescribed to help with her insomnia, anxiety and depression, and that she expressed fears she was addicted to some of them.
The defense, on cross-examination, argued that Clancy was overmedicated and demonstrated that her care was disjointed, with doctors not speaking to one another, conducting appointments with her over Zoom and not sharing their notes. Despite her efforts to seek treatment, the defense also showed she was discharged from one facility after a day and denied a higher level of care at another when she couldn't show that she had a suicide plan.
Prosecutors also questioned the seriousness of Clancy's suicide attempt and showed through texts and photos that she performed many normal activities the day of the killings, including taking her children to the doctor and playing with them in the snow.
Her doctors also testified they never saw Clancy exhibit signs of mania or psychosis, though she did repeatedly talk of feeling suicidal.
Clancy hasn't testified in the trial and isn't required to do so, but jurors have seen her break down in sobs at several points while others have been testifying, including when prosecutors showed the jury autopsy photos of the children.
Early in the trial, Clancy's former husband, Patrick Clancy, described the horror of returning home to find his dead children. During his testimony, prosecutors played a harrowing 911 call he made after finding his wife outside in the backyard.
Patrick Clancy also testified he got a call from Lindsay Clancy about a week after the killings. She didn't mention her children, he said, but “talked about what she went through. She said she heard a man’s voice telling her if she didn’t do it now she would lose her chance or something like that.”
