The prosecutor who helped send South Carolina “killer mom” Susan Smith to prison says Lindsay Clancy may not find as much compassion from female jurors as some observers expect.
Former prosecutor Rep. Tony Pope offered his view on Clancy’s potential verdict to Fox News Digital as the Massachusetts mother’s murder trial approaches its conclusion, with closing arguments anticipated Thursday.
Clancy, 36, is accused of strangling her three young children — five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan — with exercise bands inside the family’s Duxbury home in 2023.
Prosecutors say she then cut her wrists and neck before leaping from a second-floor window in an apparent suicide attempt, an act that left her paralyzed from the waist down.
The Lindsay Clancy case has become a flashpoint in the national conversation over postpartum mental illness. During the trial, hundreds of women have shown support for the former labor and delivery nurse, framing the case as a devastating example of a mother in crisis.
Pope, however, cautioned that the jury’s decision could take what he called a “strange twist,” especially if women on the panel have personally endured the “hell” of postpartum depression or similar struggles.
“For the most part, the women were the ones that said, you know, when I had my kids, I went through hell, or I went through depression, or I battled this, or I was overwhelmed. But they’re the most important thing in my life,” he told Fox.
“And so, strange twist, while a woman may have even faced postpartum depression, she may have overcome it and then be less sympathetic to Clancy.”
A former South Carolina prosecutor told Fox News he believes the women on Lindsay Clancy’s jury may be far less sympathetic to her than they seem
Clancy’s case has sparked fierce debate over postpartum mental illness, while hundreds of women have rallied behind the labor and delivery nurse
Rep Tony Pope, the prosecutor who put killer mom Susan Smith behind bars, said the verdict could deliver a ‘strange twist,’ particularly from female jurors who are mothers themselves
However, Pope said her physical condition could also throw an unexpected curveball into the prosecution’s case – particularly when it comes to the male jurors.
Clancy suffered a severe thoracic spine injury when she plunged from the second-story window, leaving her unable to move her legs when first responders found her in the snow in 2023.
Each day, she arrives at court in a sheriff’s department van, sitting in a wheelchair behind its blacked-out windows before being wheeled inside.
‘A weird mix, too, is having her in the courtroom, whether she intentionally injured herself or, as the prosecution said, tried to slide down and just got injured,’ Pope told Fox News Digital.
‘You have somebody that’s now paralyzed, which obviously doesn’t equate to killing three children,’ he added.
‘But some jurors – I would think maybe even more so men – would think, well, she’s already punished. She’s in a wheelchair. So in a strange twist, it could almost be the opposite.’
Pope, now speaker pro tempore of the South Carolina House, previously prosecuted killer mom Susan Smith in the 1994 murders of her two sons, Michael, three, and 14-month-old Alexander.
Then 22, Smith strapped her young sons into the back seat of her car before letting it roll down a ramp into John D Long Lake in Union, watching for six agonizing minutes as the vehicle filled with water and sank to the bottom.
Pope said Clancy’s reliance on a wheelchair could throw an unexpected curveball into the prosecution’s case – particularly with the male jurors
Pope, now speaker pro tempore of the South Carolina House, previously prosecuted Smith in the 1994 murders of her two sons, Michael, 3, and 14-month-old Alexander
Then 22, Smith strapped her young sons into the back seat of her car before letting it roll down a ramp into John D Long Lake in Union
For nine days, Smith and her husband David tearfully begged the supposed kidnapper on television to return their sons
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According to court records, she had embarked on an affair with Tom Findlay, the son of her boss at home décor trim company Conso Products.
Their romance imploded just one week before the murders when she kissed and fondled another man at a 1994 naked hot tub party.
Findlay dumped her in a letter, telling Smith he did not want to be with a woman who had children.
She initially claimed a black man had carjacked her after the boys drowned, sending police on a massive manhunt that saw officers question hundreds of innocent black men door to door.
For nine days, she and her husband David tearfully begged the supposed kidnapper on television to return their sons.
Smith then confessed to killing them, and authorities dragged the submerged car from the lake with the boys still strapped into their car seats.
She was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder, with the jury rejecting the death penalty. She was sentenced to life in prison.
Meanwhile, Clancy has already admitted to killing her children but pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity. Her goal is to be committed to a state mental health facility rather than sent to prison.
Smith was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder, with the jury rejecting the death penalty. She was sentenced to life in prison
Clancy has already admitted to killing her children but pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity. Her goal is to be committed to a state mental health facility
Clancy’s defense argues that her mental state and the effects of medication used to treat her postpartum psychosis should give jurors a path to a lesser conviction
Her defense argues that her mental state and the effects of medication used to treat her postpartum psychosis should give jurors a path to a lesser conviction.
Prosecutors argue that she deliberately killed her children as part of a plan that involved sending her husband, Patrick Clancy, out on errands while she strangled the children in the basement before attempting to take her own life.
The question that remains, however, is whether the labor and delivery nurse should be held criminally responsible for the killings.
Clancy faces three possible convictions – first-degree murder, second-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter – each carrying dramatically different meanings and consequences.
Prosecutors continued challenging the defense’s psychosis argument Tuesday, which, if accepted by jurors, would spare Clancy from criminal responsibility.
The state rested it’s case Wednesday after five grueling weeks, finishing with testimony from forensic psychiatrist Dr Gregory Saathoff. ‘You’ve heard all the evidence,’ judge William R Sullivan told the court.
A total of 18 jurors, compromising of 12 women and six men, will hear closing arguments Thursday morning before they are asked to decide Clancy’s fate.
