Dorothy

The trial of Lindsay Clancy, a former nurse accused of murdering her three children, is wrapping up its fifth week. On Friday morning, the defense rested, and the public attention to the case is at a fever-pitch — especially on social media. Clancy, 36, does not deny that she strangled her children, but has pleaded not guilty due to lack of criminal responsibility, also known as an insanity defense. She argues that she was in the throes of postpartum psychosis, a rare and devastating condition that can go unrecognized and untreated.

The case has become a lightning rod with the public, largely because Clancy’s defense argues that she had postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings. Clancy’s defense team is relying on what’s commonly referred to as the insanity defense to argue that she was not criminally responsible because of her mental state. The state says Clancy was aware of what she was doing when she killed her children.

The defence, which rested its case on Friday, does not dispute that Clancy carried out the killings but say she has pleaded not guilty to murder charges because she was experiencing postpartum psychosis.

The family eventually learned that Chesterton had postpartum psychosis, a severe mental health disorder thrust into the spotlight by the case of Lindsay Clancy, a Massachusetts woman on trial for strangling her three children. A key question is whether postpartum psychosis drove Clancy to do it.