Prospective jurors in the triple-murder trial of Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy faced an unusually detailed questionnaire probing their views and experiences with mental illness, as well as their personal connections to people involved in the case.
More than 300 potential jurors were questioned and dismissed before an 18-person jury pool was finalized Thursday. Many were visibly shaken, with some leaving in tears after being asked to consider the strangling deaths of Clancy’s three young children.
According to the Boston Globe, every candidate was required to answer extensive questions, including whether they had ever been diagnosed with postpartum depression, anxiety disorder or bipolar disorder — or whether any relatives had received such diagnoses.
The questionnaire also asked whether they or a family member had experience with the mental health system that could affect their ability to be impartial, and whether they could fairly consider the defense’s expected insanity argument, the Globe reported.
The deeply personal screening did not end there.
Potential jurors were asked whether they could evaluate the disturbing evidence in the case objectively, including autopsy photographs of the children, according to the outlet.
They also had to disclose whether they had any relationship with witnesses expected to testify at trial, WCVB reported.
Clancy’s defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, said an affirmative answer did not automatically disqualify a juror. Instead, he said, the questions were intended to help both sides understand how potential jurors viewed issues central to the case.
“We’re just trying to get fair people,” Reddington reportedly said after court ended on Wednesday.
Here’s the latest on Lindsay Clancy’s trial for allegedly murdering her three children:
After filling out the lengthy questionnaire, each prospective juror was sent into the Plymouth County courtroom to be interviewed by Reddington, assistant district attorneys Jennifer Sprague and Shanan Buckingham and Judge William Sullivan.
Although those conversations were private, the Boston Globe reported that several candidates were overheard admitting that they couldn’t fairly judge Clancy – and multiple were promptly excused after bursting into tears during the questioning.
A box of tissues was even placed inside the courtroom for individuals who grew emotional from discussing the grisly case details, according to the outlet.
The jury selection process faced several setbacks when three jury members requested to be removed from the case earlier this week.
“I just don’t know if I can handle being on the jury,” one emotional young man, who had previously been selected to serve on the jury, told Judge Sullivan Wednesday.
Two more jurors were cut loose on Thursday.
The wheelchair-bound 35-year-old – who is expected to argue that she was in the throes of a postpartum psychotic state during the killings – appeared to frown and gaze intensely at potential jurors as the arduous process dragged on.
The pool – composed of 12 women and six men – was eventually locked in. However, only 12 will deliberate once all of the evidence has been presented.
As jury selection wrapped up, Reddington revealed in court that the mom’s ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, is now remarried, according to multiple reports.
Patrick – who discovered the children dead in their Duxbury home in January 2023 – filed a motion this week seeking to prevent the public from hearing his 911 call recording, as well as seeing any “pre-incident,” crime scene or autopsy photographs of the three kids, during the highly anticipated trial, according to the court papers.
He also requested that the display of any clothing that once belonged to his children be restricted in the courtroom.
Judge Sullivan reportedly granted the motion Friday, ordering media not to record, display, reproduce, distribute or otherwise disseminate the 911 call and autopsy photos.
The defense team filed an additional last-minute motion in an attempt to prevent more than a dozen cops and firefighters who responded to the horrific murder scene from testifying in the trial, which is slated to last up to two months and feature testimonies of up to 200 witnesses, including Patrick.
The first responders already “testified in the grand jury to basically the same facts,” and “repeated testimony of this nature is and would be irreparably prejudicial,” Reddington wrote in the filing.
Regarding that motion, the judge said he will sidebar with both the defense and prosecution attorneys before each new witness takes the stand, so he can decide whether their testimony is necessary, outlets reported.
Opening statements were slated to begin Monday.
Clancy is accused of using exercise bands to kill her young kids in the basement of the family’s home before becoming paralyzed from the waist down after a botched bid to kill herself.
The trial will hinge on whether jurors believe the mom was suffering from postpartum psychosis worsened by a cocktail of antipsychotic medication when she allegedly committed the crime, experts previously told The Post.
Prosecutors are expected to argue that the mother wasn’t suffering a mental break – rather, she was lucid enough to methodically plan how to get her husband out of the house that day so she could be alone with their children: Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan.
