Defense to argue postpartum psychosis; prosecution says killings planned
Lindsay Clancy, 36, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder in the Jan. 24, 2023, deaths of her children Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan. Her lawyers and her husband, Patrick Clancy, say she was not criminally responsible because of postpartum psychosis, a rare condition that can trigger delusions and sometimes hallucinations after childbirth. Prosecutors, however, contend the killings were intentional and carefully planned, not the act of someone who had lost control.
On the day of the deaths, Clancy asked her husband to go out for takeout food and pick up something at the pharmacy, according to authorities. While he was gone, she used exercise bands to strangle the children in the family’s home in Duxbury, about 30 miles south of Boston. She then threw herself out a window, a fall that left her paralyzed. She is being held at a state hospital.
The trial is expected to explore postpartum psychosis, which afflicts a very small percentage of women who develop delusions and sometimes hallucinations after giving birth, and whether Clancy was responsible for her actions. Her husband has publicly supported the argument that she was not. Prosecutors say the planning involved — including the errand and the use of the exercise bands — shows she was in control.