Megyn Kelly drew a stark comparison between Lindsay Clancy and notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer while weighing in on what she believes could happen in the Massachusetts mother’s murder trial.
Clancy, 36, is accused of using exercise bands to strangle her three young children — five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan — inside the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in January 2023.
She has not disputed that she killed the children, but has entered a not guilty plea by reason of insanity, with her defense arguing that she was experiencing postpartum psychosis at the time of the deaths.
As the three-week trial came to a close on Wednesday, Kelly addressed the high-profile case on her podcast, admitting that the legal and emotional questions surrounding it are “complicated.”
Still, the former Fox News and NBC host went on to liken the mother of three to one of America’s most infamous killers.
Kelly pointed to Jeffrey Dahmer’s crimes, saying he murdered numerous young men and boys and, with a warning to listeners, noted that he also cannibalized some of his victims. She added that Dahmer had tried to “zombify” victims in an effort to keep them with him permanently.
“If anybody would ever meet the definition of legally insane, it should be somebody like a Jeffrey Dahmer,” Kelly argued during the discussion.
“Did that happen? No. That was rejected, the insanity defense in his case,” she continued, emphasizing that in both Dahmer’s case and Clancy’s trial, jurors were tasked with deciding whether the defendant should be sent to prison or placed in a mental health facility.
Podcaster Megyn Kelly on Wednesday compared killer mom Lindsay Clancy to notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer
Clancy, 36, does not deny that she killed the children, but pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity, arguing she had been suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time
Kelly noted on her program Wednesday that Dahmer (pictured in 1991) wanted to ‘zombify’ his victims before he killed them and ate them
‘And in that case, the jury said, “We reject the insanity defense. We find him guilty,” and he went to jail, and [it] didn’t end well for him there. A jury rejected the insanity defense of Jeffrey Dahmer,’ Kelly recounted. Dahmer was beaten to death by other inmate in jail.
She then argued that Clancy ‘is far closer to sane than Jeffrey Dahmer was.’
Even if the jury now finds that she had suffered post partum psychosis, Kelly argued, ‘that doesn’t necessarily mean we are in a place where she is unable to tell right from wrong, or have logical, reasoned thinking, or plan with malice aforethought the death of her children.
‘I personally am not convinced that she suffered from postpartum psychosis or any psychosis at all,’ the podcaster continued.
‘But even if she did, I don’t think that this case is one for a not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. I don’t. There’s too much ordered behavior and thinking around these crimes. This is not somebody who’s clearly out of her mind.’
Kelly then brought Dahmer back into the conversation, noting that he wanted to ‘zombify’ his victims.
‘But Lindsay Clancy is going to be found not guilty by reason of disease or mental defect? I don’t think so.’
Still, Kelly said she understands why some women are arguing that it wasn’t Clancy’s ‘fault’ that she killed her kids.
Clancy (pictured with her ex-husband Patrick) has been charged with strangling her three children – Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan – with exercise bands at their Duxbury, Massachusetts , home in January 2023
Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington sought to put involuntary manslaughter on the table for jurors, arguing Clancy was suffering from a ‘toxic soup’ of over-prescribed medications
‘I completely give them this point that she was jumping up and down looking for help,’ Kelly said of Clancy’s repeated doctors’ visits to get help for her mental health.
‘You know what happened to Lindsey Clancy wasn’t actually her fault in the same way. Mental illness is really not the fault of anybody to whom it happens. You know, it can be a chemical thing, it can be a disease thing, and it can be inherited or hereditary, genetic in some way,’ she noted.
‘So it’s not quote “her fault” in that way. And so people have empathy for her because she was, by all accounts, a loving mother prior to a few months after her third child was born, and then things started to go downhill.’
But as the prosecution wrapped up its case on Wednesday, forensic psychiatrist Dr Gregory Saathoff testified Clancy had ‘preparatory planning’ before she strangled her children.
‘My opinion is that she did have the capacity to appreciate right from wrong,’ Dr Saathoff testified.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Gregory Saathoff testified on Wednesday that Clancy is responsible for her actions and had ‘preparatory planning’ ahead of killing her children
He noted that just one day before the killings, Clancy met with Dr Jennifer Tufts and denied suicidal or homicidal thoughts. They had also spoken about future treatment.
He also said that he noticed ‘preparatory planning’ in her online searches for the distance to restaurant 3V and for CVS, before asking her husband about getting takeout and ‘adding on’ the pharmacy trip as another errand.
Then, Dr Saathoff claimed, she could commit the crime when there were no witnesses. She needed a window of time to kill the children and herself, the medic added.
‘She was conscious of time,’ he said, adding that this was seen in the locking of the door to delay Patrick from entering the bedroom.
The weapons used, the exercise bands, being readily available and nearby also shows planning, he said.
And the phone call between her and Patrick was said to be significant. Clancy called her ex-husband back, showing presence of mind to conceal from him what was going on, Dr Saathoff said.
‘It is my opinion, within a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that Lindsay Clancy was criminally responsible,’ he added.
But Clancy’s defense poked holes in the doctor’s testimony as they argued police did not properly investigate the children’s deaths.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington criticized the police investigation and argued the jury should be allowed to acquit Lindsay Clancy based on the investigation
‘It was no investigation,’ attorney Kevin Reddington said. ‘They basically accepted the fact that she strangled the children and moved on.’
He said that they didn’t test the window screen or the tumbler that she allegedly crushed pills into. He also said there are all sorts of questions about the blood spatter.
‘I could go on and on about the horrific investigation,’ he said.
Reddington argued the jury could acquit based on the investigation.
‘To have a lack of criminal responsibility, you have to admit involvement in the crime, but when you’re trying the case with lack of criminal responsibility, the government still has the burden to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of, based on the evidence, that particular crime,’ he explained.
‘If there’s evidence of a police investigation that is deficient, a jury does have a right to consider that as a basis of an acquittal.’
Judge William Sullivan denied his request to allow the jury to consider a inadequate police investigation.
However, the judge did say he will give a manslaughter instruction – meaning that the jury could find Clancy guilty of the lesser charges of manslaughter rather than murder.
Court will resume on Thursday for closing arguments, then the case will be sent to the jury for deliberation.
