PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Jurors in the closely watched Lindsay Clancy trial began deliberating this week but had not reached a verdict by the end of Friday. They have a lot to consider. Over the past five weeks, the jury heard testimony from doctors, first responders, family members and even Clancy’s ex-husband. She now weighs the question of whether she should be held criminally responsible for killing her three young children in their Massachusetts home in 2023. Both sides agree that Clancy did it. But her lawyers argue that the former delivery nurse was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time and that poor mental health care exacerbated her condition. Prosecutors argue she intentionally planned the murders. If Clancy is convicted, her sentence could be as severe as life in prison. If she is found not guilty, she can be released or remain confined in a mental health facility. As the jury deliberates, here are moments from the trial they may be considering.___EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the National Suicide and Crisis Line in the US is available by calling or texting 988.___ Clancy’s ex-husband made a distressed call to 911. Clancy’s ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, was the first to take the stand. In emotional testimony, he described the day he found his wife after she attempted suicide. Lindsay Clancy had sent him to pick up takeout and medication for her daughter, which prosecutors said was an excuse to get him out. of the house. He arrived home to find the house unusually quiet, before finding blood throughout the master bedroom and an open window. Jurors heard the 911 call Patrick Clancy made after finding his wife outside in the snow. Clancy can be heard talking to his wife and then tells the dispatcher that he is going to check on the children. Moments later, she howls and cries after finding her children in the basement. The dispatcher, confused, repeatedly asks what happened. “She killed the children!” he shouts. Everyone knew Clancy was struggling. Clancy’s mother, mother-in-law, sister, friends and co-workers testified that Clancy struggled with her mental health after giving birth to Callan, the youngest of her three children. Clancy’s mother-in-law, Susan Clancy, said she and her former daughter-in-law were close. Both worked as labor and delivery nurses. He described Lindsay as a wonderful mother. Subscribe to Morning Wire: Our flagship newsletter breaks down the day’s biggest headlines. But Susan Clancy testified that Lindsay had become anxious, paranoid and suicidal, and that the psychiatric care she was receiving was not helping. “She felt bad. She had insomnia. She was losing her appetite. She was very anxious and sad,” Susan Clancy said. “I was begging for help.” Lindsay Clancy’s mother, Paula Musgrove, testified that her daughter was afraid to sleep alone, became paranoid and believed the medications she was taking “were destroying her mind.” “Mom, could you come stay with me for a while? I’m very sick. Something is wrong,” Clancy wrote in an October 2022 text message that Paula Musgrove read in court. “I had horrible insomnia all night and I don’t know how I’m going to get through the day… It’s really scary and I don’t want to be alone.” The defense questioned the quality of Clancy’s medical care. Clancy visited several doctors due to his deteriorating mental health and was eventually admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Her attorney, Kevin Reddington, argued that she was misdiagnosed and overmedicated. While questioning one of his psychiatrists, Dr. Jennifer Tufts, Reddington questioned her experience, prescribing decisions and use of 25-minute video appointments with limited time for psychotherapy. At one point, Reddington implied that Tufts was a “robot” that checked boxes. “What did you do? There was a woman who told you she felt desperate,” he asked as they discussed a date about two months before the murders. “I told her that this was something we could address, that there was hope, that there were treatments, that there were different types of programs,” Tufts said, “so she knew she still had options and a reason to have hope.” Clancy said she heard a voice telling her Paul Zeizel, a clinical and forensic psychologist who visited Lindsay Clancy in the hospital after she killed the children, testified that he heard her say that a disembodied male voice had told her she had no choice but to kill her children and then herself. Zeizel said he believed Clancy was not responsible for his actions because of his profound mental illness. Prosecutors called a rebuttal witness, forensic psychologist Kirk Heilbrun, who said he did not believe Clancy had hallucinated voices. “One of the things he said when I asked him what had happened is that in the process of strangling each child, he said, ‘Go to God, baby. Go to God,'” he said. “That was part of her expectation that she and the children would be together in heaven with God.” Gregory Saathoff, a senior psychiatrist with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, testified to prosecutors that Clancy “had the ability to distinguish right from wrong.” The lawyers had the last word. Once the testimony was completed, each side had approximately one hour to present their closing argument to the jury. Reddington showed the jury a photo of the Clancy family, looking happy, and a second of Lindsay Clancy in the hospital. “How does this become this?” Reddington asked. “How? Because of the damn medicine and the terrible medical care he received.” Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague said criticizing the mental health system was “a distraction.” He said Clancy decided to kill his children because doing so would make it easier to commit suicide. “She was depressed. She was exhausted. She was done. She didn’t want to try anymore. She felt damaged,” Sprague said. “But those children, those children were his protective factor. Those children prevented him from ending his misery.”
