Opening statements are set to begin Monday in the trial of a Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three young children.
Lindsay Clancy, 35, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder in the 2023 killings of her children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan — arguing she was not criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.
The trial is expected to center on competing accounts of her mental state in the months leading up to her children’s deaths, which will feature dueling views about her culpability and mental state.
What is Lindsay Clancy accused of?
While the defense and prosecution agree that Clancy killed her three children, they differ sharply over whether she can be held criminally responsible.
In the months after the birth of her third child, Clancy — a former labor and delivery nurse at a Boston hospital — reportedly experienced a sharp deterioration in her mental health. Manic, unable to sleep and plagued by thoughts of harming herself, she sought treatment from specialists in postpartum mood disorders. She was prescribed multiple psychiatric medications and, when her symptoms did not improve, was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
Nineteen days after she was discharged, prosecutors say Clancy strangled her children on Jan. 24, 2023, after sending her then husband, Patrick, out on errands. She then jumped from the home’s second-story window and was paralyzed from the waist down.
Prosecutors will argue that Clancy carefully planned the killings and bears full responsibility for her children’s deaths.
Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, will argue that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis — a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that can follow childbirth — and therefore was not criminally responsible for the death of her children.
The defense says Clancy had been receiving psychiatric treatment for about four months before the killings. On the day of the deaths, she heard voices telling her, “This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself,” according to Reddington.
What is postpartum psychosis?
While postpartum depression is fairly common among women who have given birth, postpartum psychosis is estimated to affect only one to two women per 1,000 deliveries.
Symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, mood changes and thoughts of harming yourself or others. Most women with the condition, however, do not go on to harm their children.
Lindsay Clancy waits for the judge to call a prospective jury member into court in her murder trial.
(Greg Derr/Pool The Patriot Ledger via AP)Awareness of postpartum psychosis has grown, but maternal mental health advocates say prosecutors rarely consider a mother’s mental state.
Illinois is the only state with a law allowing undiagnosed or untreated postpartum depression or postpartum psychosis to be considered a mitigating factor at sentencing.
“Women who kill their children in the throes of this medical illness, postpartum psychosis, are seriously and profoundly mentally ill. They are not evil,” Dr Catherine Birndorf, CEO and founder of The Motherhood Center in New York City, which treats mothers with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, told AP.
“To me, it’s illness until proven otherwise,” she added. “The fact that we consider it criminal until proven otherwise is problematic.”
Elyse Hershon, a Boston criminal defense attorney and legal analyst, said the verdict will likely depend on how the jury views Clancy’s “intent and mental capacity.”
“Whenever there are deaths of children, it rattles emotions. Because these actions are incomprehensible and the outcome so horrific, people tend to want to hold someone responsible,” Hershon told AP.
“Some people naturally will identify and sympathize with Clancy and her postpartum depression, and others will not be able to understand how one could end their children’s lives, and demand responsibility.”
The trial is expected to last several weeks.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide or experiencing a mental-health crisis, contact the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI HelpLine: 1-800-950-6264 or text NAMI to 741-741) or the Crisis Support Services national helpline: 800-273-8255.
