Prosecutor: Women Jurors May Sway Lindsay Clancy Verdict

A South Carolina legislator who helped secure the conviction of Susan Smith in one of the nation’s most notorious child-murder cases says the makeup of Lindsay Clancy’s jury could create an unexpected dynamic — particularly because female jurors may not respond to her defense with the sympathy some observers anticipate.

Clancy, 36, is facing three first-degree murder charges in the deaths of her children — Cora, Dawson and Callan — all of whom were under the age of 6 when they were found strangled inside the family’s home in January 2023.

Her legal team has argued that Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she killed the children.

The trial is nearing a pivotal stage, with testimony expected to conclude Wednesday and closing arguments likely to begin Thursday. After that, the case will be handed to the jury. The panel selected for the proceedings includes 12 women and six men, though only 12 jurors will take part in deliberations; the remaining members are alternates who will be released before the jury begins its work.

The comparison to Susan Smith stems from another high-profile case involving a mother convicted in the deaths of her young children. Smith, a South Carolina mother, was found guilty of killing her sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander, after prosecutors said she strapped them into her vehicle and allowed it to roll into a lake. At trial, prosecutors argued that one motive was Smith’s relationship with a man who did not want to be involved with a woman who had children. She received a life sentence.

Rep. Tommy Pope, now speaker pro tempore of the South Carolina House of Representatives, was one of the prosecutors in the Smith case. Speaking with News Outlet, he said the female jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial could prove tougher to persuade than the defense might expect.

“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,” Pope said. “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.”

On the flip side, Pope said Clancy’s current physical condition might complicate things for the prosecution in an unexpected way.

“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. You have somebody that’s now paralyzed, which obviously doesn’t equate to killing three children,” Pope said. “But some jurors, and 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.”

Prosecutors on Tuesday continued to challenge the psychosis argument that Clancy’s defense attorney says frees her from criminal responsibility for her children’s deaths.

Gregory Saathoff, a forensic psychiatrist at the University of Virginia who consults for the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, told jurors that Clancy’s self-described auditory hallucinations were “very unusual.”

“What was significant to me is that she had not spoken about hearing voices before to any of the mental health professionals, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, physicians and staff in the emergency department, or at McLean,” Saathoff said.

“This was the first time she reported that, and that she experienced an auditory hallucination, according to what she told me. So that was unusual. And then what was very unusual was the fact that the voice stopped with the strangling of her youngest son,” he added.

In another blow to Clancy’s defense, prosecutors asked psychologist Kirk Heilbrun whether someone hearing a command hallucination could still conform their conduct to the law.

“In some cases they can,” he responded.

Earlier in the week, Clancy’s defense called its own experts and argued she’s not criminally responsible. Dr. Phillip Resnick, a forensic psychiatrist, testified that Clancy killed her children while she was experiencing a “command hallucination,” stating she felt like “a puppet.”

“Not only did she hear a command, but she felt that her body was taken over by an external force where she was in a dream state and did not have control of her own body. It was almost like she was a puppet and someone else was pulling the strings,” Resnick said.

Outside the courtroom on Tuesday, one person told News Outlet she was there in support of Lindsay Clancy because “I’ve always been aware that mental health is something that’s woefully in need of funding, education, all that.”

“This trial has really made a lot of us realize just how bad things are. Obviously, a really sad story and hard to listen to at times. But if this moves the needle just a teeny tiny bit, and women start to experience more support, then I’m here for that. I was just telling my friend that when I had my children and left the hospital, nobody really said anything about postpartum, you know, be on the lookout for things. And…you know, we just had to figure it out ourselves. It shouldn’t be that way. And I hope things change,” the woman said.