United States of America

Jury Deliberates in Lindsay Clancy Child Murder Trial

Is Lindsay Clancy a victim of catastrophic medical failure and postpartum psychosis or a calculated killer who must face criminal accountability?

AUG 27·Updated AUG 28

Jury Deliberates in Lindsay Clancy Child Murder Trial

Story

Above: Lindsay Clancy and defense attorney Kevin Reddington listen to testimony at Plymouth Superior Court on August 18, 2026. Image credit: Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

The Facts

Jury deliberations began Thursday in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, 36, who is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the January 2023 strangulation deaths of her children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months. The jury of nine women and three men was sent home after roughly three and a half hours and resumed deliberations the following morning.
Boston.com
CBS News
FOX News
Clancy has admitted to killing her three children with exercise bands in the family's Duxbury home and then jumping from a second-story window, leaving her paralyzed. She has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, with her defense asserting she lacked criminal responsibility due to postpartum psychosis.
WGBH
CBS News
The Washington Examiner
During closing arguments, defense attorney Kevin Reddington argued Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis and heard a male voice commanding her to kill her children. Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague countered that Clancy planned the killings by sending her husband on errands and that her behavior demonstrated she knew right from wrong.
Boston.com
USA Today
Sprague argued Clancy had "more access to treatment and care and support than a lot of people do" and was not compliant with her medications, at times withholding information from her health care providers. Reddington held up a list of 30 prescriptions Clancy was issued in four months, arguing she "was religious in her obligation to take care of her health."
BostonGlobe
The Associated Press
The Washington Times
Forensic psychiatrists offered opposing assessments of Clancy's mental state at the time of the killings. Dr. Phillip Resnick testified she "was clearly psychotic on that day," while prosecution rebuttal witness Dr. Avram Mack said she retained "the capacity required for having criminal responsibility."
Boston.com
CBS News
If convicted of first-degree murder, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. if found not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state psychiatric facility subject to periodic reviews.
ABC News
The Associated Press
Breitbart

Sources Split

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The Spin

Narrative A

The Lindsay Clancy trial points to a woman destroyed by adverse medication reactions, severe sleep deprivation and postpartum psychosis — not a calculated killer. Clancy was a victim as well, a victim of a broken mental health system that she desperately needed to work effectively. Health care access for women and mothers is woefully inadequate and dismissive, and this case has started a real conversation.

Ms. Magazine

USA Today

Narrative B

The tragedy of this case has been obscured by a disturbing online fandom around Clancy. Countless women on TikTok and elsewhere are transposing their everyday qualms with motherhood onto a case involving a rare postpartum condition and infanticide. Regardless of how the jury rules, three children are dead, and they have been utterly lost in the noise. The children are the real victims of this case.

USA Today