Lindsay Clancy Murder Trial: Jury Enters Third Day Without Verdict in Duxbury Child Killings

Jurors in Plymouth County deliberated a third day Monday in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, accused of strangling her three children in January 2023.

Third Day of Deliberations Ends Without Verdict in Clancy Child Killings Trial

Jurors in Plymouth County Superior Court concluded a third day of deliberations Monday without reaching a verdict in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the former labor and delivery nurse charged with strangling her three young children in January 2023, Courthouse News Service reports. The panel is set to resume Tuesday.

Clancy, 36, originally from Wallingford, Connecticut, has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility. She does not deny strangling Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, with exercise bands in the basement of the family's home in coastal Duxbury, Massachusetts, on Jan. 24, 2023.

The jury began deliberations Thursday after five weeks of testimony from more than 70 prosecution witnesses — including Clancy's then-husband — and 10 defense witnesses.

Defense: postpartum psychosis stripped her of reality

Clancy's attorney argued she carried out the killings because postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness that can follow childbirth, had caused her to lose touch with reality entirely. In the months before the deaths, Clancy had sought treatment for deteriorating mental health, including a stay at a psychiatric hospital. The killings occurred less than three weeks after she was discharged from that facility.

Prosecutors countered that Clancy was fully aware of her actions. She strangled the children, they argued, because she was depressed, exhausted with life, and made a deliberate decision to kill them before attempting to take her own life — an attempt she made while her husband had left to pick up takeout and stop at a pharmacy.

After strangling the children, Clancy cut herself and jumped from a second-floor window. She remains paralyzed from the waist down.

Medical experts split on her state of mind

Jurors heard at length from physicians and mental health professionals who treated Clancy, as well as from friends and relatives she had confided in about her struggles. Expert witnesses called by both the prosecution and the defense offered conflicting assessments of her likely mental state at the time of the killings.

The jury has three possible paths: convict Clancy of murder, return the lesser verdict of manslaughter, or acquit her on grounds that she lacked criminal responsibility due to psychiatric illness. If convicted of murder, she faces up to life in prison. An acquittal could result in her release or continued confinement in a mental health facility.

The case has drawn broad public attention to the issue of maternal mental health following childbirth.

Editor's note: This article includes references to suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the United States is available by calling or texting 988.

Source: Courthouse News Service