The jury in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial has entered deliberations as jurors decide whether the 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse is criminally responsible for fatally strangling her three children in January 2023. Over the past five weeks, the trial, which has been called “America’s saddest murder trial,” has renewed national attention on postpartum mental health care. Clancy’s defense maintains that she suffered from postpartum psychosis – a condition estimated to affect around two women per 1,000 births – and therefore should not be held criminally responsible for her actions. Meanwhile, prosecutors with the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office argue that Clancy’s actions were planned and deliberate. Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, began his closing arguments Thursday by pointing out Clancy’s suicide attempt after strangling her three children. She cut her wrists and neck and jumped from the second floor of her house, in an attempt that left her paralyzed from the waist down. “He made a very, very significant suicide attempt,” Reddington said, arguing that prosecutors are downplaying the severity of Clancy’s suicide attempt. “They were arguing it was a fake suicide. Small cuts. No bleeding… You know that’s not what happened.” Reddington went on to say that Clancy was in “depths of despair” before killing his children. He held a sign displaying several messages Clancy had written while struggling with his mental health. “There’s nothing more than little chicken scratches because he lost his mind,” said Reddington, who has repeatedly argued that Clancy was overmedicated. “You have the medical records. You heard the testimony. You know their concerns. You know their fears,” Reddington argued, adding, “Does this sound like a young woman who didn’t care and wanted to get more drugs out of someone? That’s another repulsive accusation.” At one point, Reddington noted Clancy’s efforts to seek help, including researching support for postpartum depression, contacting a suicide hotline, visiting various providers, and voluntarily admitting himself to a psychiatric hospital. “My God, what does he have to do? He was looking for help and he didn’t get it,” she said. Meanwhile, prosecutor Jennifer Sprague argued that the case is not about the “mental health system or how it treats women,” calling for that approach. “a distraction to get you angry and passionate about an important issue, but an issue that is not being judged here.” Sprague acknowledged Clancy’s mental health issues, but pointed to the resources and treatment available to her, saying, “This was not a woman who suffered from a lack of care, of resources… She had abundant health, abundant care. She had all that and more.” Sprague continued, “She wanted to get better, but she wanted to get better on her own terms…And as a nurse, I knew that’s not the right way to go about it.” He also argued that Clancy hid thoughts about harming her children from mental health providers in December 2022 because she feared she would be separated from them. About 2 or 3 times a day Subscribe to Breaking News US Receive the biggest news as it breaks after the newsletter promotion. “That’s a rational thought,” Sprague said, adding, “It also shows that she knew it was a bad thought, a wrong thought.” Sprague argued that Clancy planned the murders by claiming she sent her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, to a takeout restaurant and also checked a map to calculate how long it would take him to pick up the food and return home. What he needed to know was how long specifically that night it would take him to get there… because he knew he would have a limited amount of time to do what he wanted to do. And what she had decided to do was kill the children and then kill herself,” Sprague said. She added that Clancy asked her then-husband to also pick up some medications at a nearby pharmacy, saying, “She’s contributing to this errand and she has to make sure she doesn’t get interrupted.” Sprague ended her closing argument by presenting the state’s explanation for why Clancy killed her three children: “She was depressed. I was exhausted. It was already over. I didn’t want to try anymore. She felt damaged… But those children, those children were her protective factor. “Those children prevented him from putting an end to his misery.” “He left them lying on the basement floor like broken toys because the game was over… You know with moral certainty that he is guilty,” he added.
