Warning: Graphic content PLYMOUTH, Mass. -- Lindsay Clancy was in a deep psychosis when she strangled her three children in their Massachusetts home, her lawyer said Thursday, telling jurors that she had been a loving mother before her mental health spiralled. “Because of the damned medicine and the lousy medical care that she got,” attorney Kevin Reddington said during closing arguments of Clancy’s murder trial, referencing the various mental health providers she saw and different drugs prescribed in the months before the January 2023 killings. Prosecutors contend that Clancy acted intentionally and sent her husband out on an errand before killing her young children and attempting suicide, rejecting her lawyer’s claims that Clancy was in the throes of postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes following childbirth. Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague told jurors in her closing argument that the case isn’t about the nation’s mental healthcare system or how it treats women. “That’s a distraction to get you angry and passionate about an important issue, but an issue that’s not on trial here,” she said. Clancy’s mental state is at the centre of the closely watched trial that has drawn attention to maternal mental health after childbirth. The debate has stirred deep divisions among the public over whether she should be held criminally responsible. Clancy, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility, did not testify during the trial, now in its fifth week. Jurors will begin deliberations following closing arguments. If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she still could be committed to a state mental health facility. During more than four weeks of testimony, jurors heard opposing views from medical experts about Clancy’s mental state after the birth of her third child and her culpability. Both Clancy’s mother and sister testified that she became anxious, paranoid and suicidal. Clancy, now 36, had sought treatment from multiple providers in the months before the killings and even checked herself into a psychiatric hospital. Less than three weeks after being discharged from that hospital, Clancy strangled Cora, Dawson and Callan Clancy, ages 5, 3 and 8 months, with exercise bands in the basement of their home south of Boston. She then jumped from a second-floor window and remains paralyzed from the waist down. During closing arguments, the prosecution said the focus should be on whether Lindsay Clancy knew the difference between right and wrong at the time. Sprague argued that Clancy’s decision not to tell her mental health providers about thoughts she had in December 2022 of harming her children showed that she understood those thoughts were wrong. The prosecutor acknowledged that Clancy sought help for her mental health struggles, but said she did not always take medications as prescribed or give her providers complete and accurate information. During his closing, Reddington said the prosecution tried to paint Clancy’s attempt to take her life after killing her children as “a fake suicide.” “You know that is not what happened,” he said. Prosecutors say Clancy understood her actions were wrong. Reddington held up a copy of the book “Good Moms have Scary Thoughts” that investigators found at the Clancy house. He said prosecutors tried to use it as evidence against Clancy but that it was a mental healthcare provider who gave it to her. “This woman lived for her kids,” he said. He showed jurors a small “wish box” that Clancy and then-husband Patrick bought on their honeymoon. Over the years, the couple filled the box with slips of paper wishing to have healthy, successful kids, Reddington said as Lindsay Clancy wiped away tears. Reddington told the jury that after Clancy started seeing a psychiatrist that “it was not a wonderful life anymore.” “You heard the testimony. You know her concerns. You know her fears,” he said. Michael Casey and Leah Willingham, The Associated Press Willingham reported from Boston. If you or someone you know is in crisis or struggling with mental illness, here are some resources that are available. Canada Suicide Crisis Helpline (Call or text 988 or visit 988.ca) Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (1-800-463-2338) Kids Help Phone (1-800-668-6868) If you need immediate assistance call 911 or go to the nearest hospital.
