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Trial and defense theory
In Plymouth Superior Court, defense psychologist Paul Zeizel testified that Lindsay Clancy was not criminally responsible for killing her three children because she was in the grip of postpartum psychosis when she strangled Callan, Dawson and Cora Clancy before trying to kill herself.
““She was unable to conform her behavior to the rule of law. She had no appreciation for the wrongfulness of her act,” Zeizel said”
Zeizel told jurors, “She was unable to conform her behavior to the rule of law. She had no appreciation for the wrongfulness of her act,” and said she had “a mental disease or a defect.”
Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of Callan, Dawson and Cora Clancy, who ranged from 8 months to 5 years old, and prosecutors say she planned the January 2023 killings.
NBC News reported that prosecutors say the former labor and delivery nurse contrived to get her husband out of the house by sending him to pick up medicine for one of their children and dinner for the family.
The defense case hinges on whether postpartum psychosis left Clancy unable to determine right from wrong on Jan. 24, 2023, the day she killed her children at her family’s home in the Boston suburb of Duxbury.
Prosecution challenges credibility
On cross-examination, prosecutors challenged Zeizel’s credibility by pointing out mistakes Zeizel made in his report about Clancy and by questioning whether he could be objective about her diagnosis while he was seeing her as a patient and working with the defense.
NBC News said Zeizel acknowledged that there was nothing in Clancy’s medical records in which she reports hearing voices telling her to kill herself, only that she told her caregivers that “she wanted to die.”
The Boston Herald reported that prosecutor Shanan Buckingham asked whether masking psychosis would have taken a lot of control, and Zeizel testified that it would depend on how loud the auditory hallucinations sounded to the individual.
The same cross-examination included a question about whether Clancy had heard voices since, and Zeizel testified, “She has not heard voices since the event took place.”
Jurors also heard that after strangling her children, Clancy jumped from a second-story window and remains paralyzed from the waist down, as prosecutors questioned the seriousness of her suicide attempt.
Community reaction and next steps
Outside the courthouse in Plymouth, dozens gathered for a silent rally in support of Lindsay Clancy, expected to be called “Stand In Peace For Lindsay,” with attendees united in silence and wearing pink.
“Dozens are expected to attend the event called "Stand In Peace For Lindsay" -- united in silence and wearing pink.”
NBC Boston said the event was organized by the same group that organized a rally outside the Norfolk Superior Courthouse in Dedham during both of Karen Read's murder trials, and that there were expected to be a number of rallies like it across the U.S. including one advertised in the Netherlands.
Inside the courtroom, jurors were sent home for the day on Wednesday afternoon after Judge William Sullivan described an “unforeseen circumstance,” and he told jurors, “This is not something we saw coming, but you're not to speculate about what it is.”
Testimony was scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. on Thursday, after defense lawyers had called eight witnesses and Zeizel returned to the stand earlier Wednesday to continue explaining postpartum psychosis as the cause of Clancy’s inability to conform her behavior to the rule of law.
NBC News also reported the stakes for Clancy: if convicted of murder, she faces life in prison without parole, while if found not guilty because of a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.
