Jury selection commenced Monday in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, a Massachusetts mother accused of strangling her three young children on Jan. 24, 2023. Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of her children Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, who was 8 months old.
Clancy's defense attorneys plan to argue that she was not responsible for her actions due to postpartum psychosis, a rare condition that can cause delusions and hallucinations in women after giving birth. Prosecutors, however, contend that the killings were deliberate and planned, not the result of a loss of control.
The former labor and delivery nurse allegedly strangled her children with exercise bands in the family's Duxbury home after her husband, Patrick Clancy, left to get takeout food and run an errand at a pharmacy. Following the deaths of their children, Lindsay Clancy fell out of a window and sustained paralysis. She is currently being held at a state hospital.
The trial is anticipated to delve into the complexities of postpartum psychosis. Both Clancy's defense and her husband have stated that she was suffering from severe psychiatric issues following childbirth. According to a lawsuit filed by Clancy and her husband against her medical providers, she experienced depression, insomnia, and heard voices urging her to harm herself and her children. She had spent time in a psychiatric hospital weeks before the killings, and her lawsuit detailed her efforts to seek medical treatment, including visiting emergency rooms, contacting crisis hotlines, admitting herself to hospitals, and taking prescribed medication.
Her legal team asserts that Clancy recognized her deteriorating mental state and sought help. "Lindsay Clancy did everything a mother in her situation could do. She recognized something was wrong with her. She sought medical treatment. She went to emergency rooms. She called crisis hotlines. She admitted herself to hospitals. She took the medication prescribed to her. She communicated her worsening symptoms to her providers. She told them the medications were making her worse," the lawsuit stated.
On the day of the killings, Clancy reported hearing voices instructing her to kill her children as a precursor to killing herself.
Patrick Clancy is expected to be a witness for both the prosecution and the defense. In public statements, including a GoFundMe post released shortly after the children's deaths, he expressed forgiveness for his wife. He described the "shock and pain" as "excruciating and relentless" but urged others to remember the Lindsay he knew before the tragedy.
"The real Lindsay was generously loving and caring toward everyone — me, our kids, family, friends, and her patients. The very fibers of her soul are loving. All I wish for her now is that she can somehow find peace," he wrote.
Approximately 18 jurors, including six alternates, are expected to be selected over several days. The trial is projected to continue for several weeks. Clancy's attorney, Kevin Reddington, has acknowledged that his client killed the children but intends to present an insanity defense, calling the case an "extreme tragedy."