The prosecutor who secured a conviction for Susan Smith, who drowned her two sons, stated that Lindsay Clancy's defense has not established a "break with reality" as jury deliberations are set to begin in Clancy's murder trial. Clancy, 36, faces three counts of first-degree murder in the January 2023 deaths of her children, Cora, Dawson, and Callan, all under the age of 6, who were found strangled in their Duxbury, Massachusetts, home.
Closing arguments concluded Thursday, with the defense maintaining that Clancy was experiencing postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings, a claim prosecutors have strongly contested.
Tommy Pope, currently the speaker pro tempore for the South Carolina House of Representatives and the prosecutor in the Susan Smith case, told Fox News Digital that he believes Clancy failed to prove she had a break from reality. He noted that while the defense presented evidence of Clancy's prior treatment, "I still don't really see the break with reality." Pope suggested that prosecutors aim to highlight mundane actions taken by defendants to counter claims of psychosis, posing the question: "Was it a break from reality? Or did she just commit a horrible, horrible crime and make a horrible, horrible choice?"
Smith, a South Carolina mother, was convicted of killing her two young sons in 1994 by strapping them into her car and allowing it to roll into a lake. Prosecutors argued at the time that Smith killed her children, in part, because a man she was romantically involved with did not want a relationship with a woman who had children. She was sentenced to life in prison. Her defense contended she suffered from severe depression and was in a fragile mental state, framing the act as a failed suicide attempt. Pope contrasted the two cases, pointing out that a clear motive was present in the Smith murders, which he sees as lacking in Clancy's case.
"In this one, it's hard to see the end game," Pope said, referring to Clancy's trial. "What was her goal after? Let's say that even jumping out the window was a suicidal gesture, which obviously went terribly wrong for her, if that was the case. But what was her end game? And that's one disconnect I see."
During the trial, Gregory Saathoff, a forensic psychiatrist with the University of Virginia who consults for the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, testified that financial pressures were among the stressors Clancy faced and could offer an explanation for the killings. Saathoff stated that Clancy felt her "brain had been damaged" and believed she could no longer perform work she enjoyed or help support her family, leading to feelings of being a burden.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington questioned Saathoff regarding his experience with terrorism, eliciting an acknowledgment that severe insomnia, a tactic used in torture, "can actually lead to psychosis." Saathoff confirmed that such a development is possible.