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Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, maintains that she was so mentally ill that she shouldn’t be held criminally responsible for the killings. According to her defense, she had bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis and, ultimately, it led her to believe she heard a voice telling her to kill the children so she could end her own life.

In a case that has captivated the American public, Clancy has not disputed that she killed them, but her lawyers argue she should not be held legally responsible because she was suffering from severe mental illness.

In recent days, prosecutors have refined their argument that Clancy was a high-functioning mother and a perfectionist who felt she was losing control and planned to take her own and her children’s lives.

Prosecutors allege Clancy planned the killings by sending her husband to pick up takeout food and medicine, then, while he was gone, strangling the children with exercise bands. Afterward, Clancy cut her wrists and neck and jumped out of a second-story window, leaving her paralyzed.

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Lindsay Clancy strangled her three children because she was depressed and tired of living, not because of failings with mental healthcare, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday before they began deliberating in her murder trial.

Sprague emphasized that Clancy was “a functioning mom” in the months leading up to the murders, even throwing a birthday party for her children. The prosecutor said that while she told close family members about thoughts of harming her children, the mother did not tell therapists or healthcare providers about hallucinations leading up to the killings. Even with her psychologist, Clancy denied wanting to hurt anyone else, denied voices, denied having visual hallucinations, and showed no signs of psychosis, Sprague said.

At the start of the trial, Clancy, who has admitted to fatally strangling her three young children, was facing three counts of first-degree murder, which carry a life sentence. Clancy’s defense team argued that jurors should be allowed to consider second-degree murder or manslaughter, while the state objected. Judge William Sullivan ultimately agreed to give the manslaughter instruction.

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WATCH LIVE: Presentation of evidence expected to conclude in Lindsay Clancy trial The prosecution resumed questioning its final witness Wednesday in the murder trial against Lindsay Clancy, with an FBI psychiatrist testifying that the choices she made while killing her three children indicated she remained in control of her actions.

Prosecutors, however, have said Clancy is criminally responsible because she carefully planned the killings.

Jury Begins Deliberations in Lindsay Clancy Murder Trial In closing arguments, Ms. Clancy’s lawyer called her “a darn good mother.” The prosecutor accused her of “extreme atrocity and cruelty.”

What to know about the Lindsay Clancy trial Closing arguments are expected later this week in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the 36-year-old Massachusetts mother who strangled her three kids to death in 2023.

Whether Clancy lacked criminal responsibility because of genuine mental incapacity must be judged according to evidence and due process. The scandal is that the culture answered that question in her favor before the jury could, directing its emotional energy toward her rather than her three dead children.