PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Closing arguments got underway Thursday in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of strangling her three young children in a case that has placed postpartum mental health at the center of public attention.
The proceedings resumed at about 9 a.m. ET in Plymouth Superior Court, where prosecutors and the defense were each allotted one hour to present their final arguments before the jury receives its instructions and begins deliberations.
Before attorneys addressed the jury, Judge William Sullivan explained the legal standards jurors must apply as they weigh the evidence.
“If you find that the Commonwealth has not proven the charges of first-degree or second-degree murder, you shall consider the lesser offense of manslaughter,” Sullivan said. “Wanton or reckless conduct is intentional conduct that creates a high degree of likelihood that substantial harm will result to another person.”
The judge also told jurors how they should evaluate any impairment connected to Clancy’s mental illness or the medications she had been prescribed.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington then began delivering his closing argument following the judge’s instructions.
Clancy did not take the stand during the trial, now in its fifth week. Prosecutors presented testimony from more than 70 witnesses, including Clancy’s then-husband, while the defense called 10 witnesses, among them friends and relatives of Clancy.
Several psychologists and psychiatrists also testified about Clancy’s mental health, a central issue jurors must consider in the case.
Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility, with her lawyers arguing she was experiencing postpartum psychosis when she killed 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan Clancy at the family’s home in coastal Duxbury in January 2023 before attempting suicide. Postpartum psychosis is a rare mental illness that is linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth.
Prosecutors say Clancy planned the killings and understood her actions were wrong.
If convicted of murder, Clancy faces a mandatory life prison sentence. If jurors find her not guilty because she lacked criminal responsibility, she would not face prison time but could be committed to a psychiatric facility.
Testifying Wednesday as the final rebuttal witness for the prosecution, a forensic psychiatrist at the University of Virginia and a senior psychiatrist for the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit said he did not believe Clancy’s account that a voice ordered her to kill the children.
Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague asked Dr. Gregory Saathoff a series of questions about Clancy’s account: Did the voice tell her where to kill the children? How to kill them? What to use? In what order? Saathoff answered no each time.
All three children were strangled with exercise bands in the family’s basement before Clancy jumped from a second-floor window while her husband went to pick up takeout and medication on Jan. 24, 2023. Saathoff said her ability to accomplish everything she did without direction indicated Clancy “had control, control of the sequence of what she was doing throughout.”
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington asked Saathoff about Clancy’s attempts to search online for information about postpartum depression, her visits to multiple maternal and mental health providers, disclosures to her mother and then-husband that she was suicidal and feared that she would harm her children, and calls to a suicide hotline – all attempts that Reddington contends establish that Clancy realized something was seriously wrong and made a sincere effort over time to get help.
Reddington, referencing the prosecutor’s opening statement, asked whether Saathoff believes that Clancy decided to kill her children because she “no longer liked the life she thought she wanted” and was making “a selfish choice” to “manipulate her providers, seek out a quick and easy fix when she was feeling depressed and anxious.”
“I think that statement that you read really minimizes what she was going through,” Saathoff responded.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. Free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You are not on your own.
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