The defense in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial rested its case Friday after presenting testimony regarding her mental state before and after she strangled her three young children. Prosecutors then began calling rebuttal witnesses in the trial, which is expected to enter its final days with closing arguments anticipated next week.
Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of her children Callan, Dawson, and Cora Clancy, who were aged 8 months to 5 years old. The children were found in the basement of the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Clancy jumped from a second-story window after the killings and remains paralyzed from the waist down.
Prosecutors contend that Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, planned the killings. Her lawyer, Kevin Reddington, has not disputed that she killed the children but argues she should not be held criminally responsible due to postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness associated with the stress, sleep deprivation, and hormonal changes following childbirth.
To support the defense, the jury heard testimony from Clancy’s family members, who detailed her deteriorating mental health and her efforts to seek psychiatric treatment and medication prior to the January 2023 killings. The jury also heard from a psychologist and a hospital chaplain who met with Clancy after the events.
Dr. Phillip Resnick, a forensic psychiatrist and expert in filicide, testified as the defense’s final witness. Resnick stated that Clancy was “clearly psychotic” on the day of the killings and was not in control of her actions. He described her state as being like a "puppet" whose strings were being pulled by someone else. Resnick had previously testified for the defense in the 2006 trial of Andrea Yates, who drowned her five children.
Resnick testified that he interviewed Clancy four months after the killings and believed she tended to minimize her symptoms. He said she suffered from severe depression, showed signs consistent with bipolar disorder, and reported hearing voices commanding her to kill her children. He categorized Clancy's case as involving a form of altruistic filicide, where the killing is committed out of a perceived sense of love rather than hostility, combined with psychosis, and found no evidence of abuse.
Resnick further explained that Clancy held a delusional belief that if social services intervened or if she died by suicide, her children would suffer. She believed her children would be better off dying with her and going to heaven, and thus "believed that she was doing what was right for her children."
During cross-examination, prosecutor Jennifer Sprague questioned this characterization, asking if it was "better to kill them than have them taken away?" The judge struck the question.
Prosecutors maintain that Clancy orchestrated her husband's departure from the home on the day of the killings. They have argued that while she received treatment for anxiety, insomnia, and depression, she was not suffering from psychosis.
If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. Resources are also available at 988lifeline.org. Outside of the U.S., the International Association for Suicide Prevention can provide assistance.