No verdict after 3 days of deliberations in the Lindsay Clancy trial
over the killing of her kids
[September 01, 2026]
By MICHAEL CASEY
PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial on Monday
spent a third day deliberating without reaching a verdict on whether the
former labor and delivery nurse is criminally responsible for killing
her three children in 2023 — a case that has drawn attention to maternal
mental health after childbirth.
The jurors began discussing the case Thursday in Plymouth County
Superior Court after hearing testimony from more than 70 prosecution
witnesses, including her then-husband, and 10 defense witnesses over
five weeks.
The jury is slated to resume deliberations on Tuesday.
While Clancy doesn’t deny strangling her children, her lawyer said she
did it because she had lost her grip on reality due to postpartum
psychosis, a rare mental illness that can follow childbirth. In the
months before the killings, Clancy sought treatment for her worsening
mental health, including a stay in a psychiatric hospital.
Prosecutors said Clancy knew what she was doing. They say she strangled
the children because she was depressed and tired of living, and made a
conscious choice to kill them before attempting suicide.
The jury could find her guilty of murder or the lesser crime of
manslaughter, or it could acquit her if it finds that she wasn't in
control of herself due to psychiatric problems. Clancy's sentence could
be as severe as life in prison, or she could be released or remain
confined in a mental health facility if acquitted.
All three children — Cora, Dawson and Callan Clancy, ages 5, 3 and 8
months — were strangled with exercise bands in the basement of the
family's home in coastal Duxbury, Massachusetts, before Clancy tried to
kill herself while her husband was getting takeout and going to a
pharmacy on Jan. 24, 2023.
Clancy, 36, who grew up in Wallingford, Connecticut, has pleaded not
guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility. She did not testify
during the trial, but jurors heard at length from medical professionals
who treated her, as well as from friends and relatives she had told
about her mental health problems.
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Lindsay Clancy watches jury members as Judge William Sullivan polls
them before they start deliberations during her murder trial at
Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., Monday, Aug. 31, 2026.
(Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Her defense lawyer, Kevin Reddington, said after jurors ended their
deliberations Monday that he hopes the case will change how women
with similar conditions are treated by the healthcare system.
“It strikes a chord with many, many people. It strikes a chord with,
I think, obviously, women because it’s atrocious,” he said about how
several of Clancy’s medical appointments were done virtually.
Jurors heard from medical experts called by prosecutors and the
defense, who disagreed about her likely state of mind when she
killed the children.
The killings happened less than three weeks after Clancy was
discharged from a psychiatric hospital. She cut herself before
jumping from a second-floor window after strangling the children.
She remains paralyzed from the waist down.
___
Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut,
contributed to this report.
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