Lindsay Clancy, a 35-year-old former labour and delivery nurse from Massachusetts, has gone on trial accused of strangling her three young children with exercise resistance bands before attempting to take her own life. The killings took place on 24 January 2023 at the family home in Duxbury, about 30 miles south of Boston. Clancy, who is paralysed from the waist down after jumping from a 20ft window, has pleaded not guilty to the murders of Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan.
Prosecutors argue that the murders were premeditated, pointing to evidence that Clancy searched online for the distance to a restaurant and pharmacy on the night of the killings. They say she sent her husband out to collect medicine and takeaway food before attacking the children. However, her defence team, supported by her ex-husband and the children's father, Patrick Clancy, maintains that she was suffering from a severe postpartum mental illness, exacerbated by overmedication, and should not be held criminally responsible. Clancy has told investigators she heard a voice instructing her to kill the children and herself.
The case has drawn attention to the treatment of women with postpartum psychiatric conditions. Clancy had been discharged from McLean, a Massachusetts mental health hospital, earlier in the month, and her husband and parents had reportedly avoided leaving her alone with the children. In a statement released after the killings, Patrick Clancy described their marriage as "wonderful" and said he had taken "as much pride in being her husband as I did in being a father". Prosecutors have also revealed that Clancy told her husband by phone from hospital that she had experienced "a moment of psychosis" and heard a man's voice telling her to kill the children and herself.
Massachusetts uses a "lack of criminal responsibility" standard rather than the traditional insanity defence. If successful, Clancy would be found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to a state psychiatric hospital. If not, she faces a life sentence. The trial is expected to highlight the rare condition of postpartum psychosis, which sits at the extreme end of postpartum depression. Previous cases, such as that of Andrea Yates, who drowned her five children in Texas in 2001, have also raised questions about maternal mental health and criminal responsibility.
At a pre-trial hearing, Clancy's attorney, Kevin Reddington, argued for limits on graphic evidence and the number of first responders testifying, saying: "Even though we are in court, let's talk a little about humanity." He also accused prosecutors of wanting to put Patrick Clancy on the stand and show "little onesies" – the pyjamas worn by the children when they died. Opening statements are due to begin on Monday.
