Jurors in the homicide trial of Lindsay Clancy have been sent home for the day on Wednesday afternoon due to what Judge William Sullivan described as an “unforeseen circumstance.”
Testimony is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. on Thursday. The choose didn’t point out the reason behind the delay.
“This is not something we saw coming, but you’re not to speculate about what it is,” Sullivan advised jurors. “You’re not to hold it against either side. It’s just something that we have to deal with.”
Earlier Wednesday, a forensic psychologist who has met with Lindsay Clancy roughly 60 instances over the final three years returned to the witness stand, as protection lawyer Kevin Reddington sought to show that an episode of postpartum psychosis led Clancy to kill her three youngsters in January 2023.
Clancy is going through three counts of first-degree homicide for the deaths of her 5-year-old daughter Cora, 3-year-old son Dawson, and toddler son Callan at her household’s home in the Boston suburb of Duxbury on Jan. 24, 2023. She has pleaded not responsible.
Reddington has argued that Clancy was affected by postpartum psychosis when she strangled her three youngsters and tried to take her personal life. Defense legal professionals don’t contest that Clancy was accountable for the deaths of her three youngsters. Instead, they argue she shouldn’t be held criminally accountable for their deaths as a result of she was affected by postpartum psychosis at the time.
In his testimony on Wednesday, scientific and forensic psychologist Paul Zeizel walked jurors by the downward spiral the 36-year-old claimed she skilled in the months prior to the killings, primarily based on his opinion and a overview of her medical recordsdata.
In late 2022, Zeizel testified Clancy started experiencing “derealization” — a way of detachment from one’s environment, in accordance to the National Center for Biotechnology Information — in addition to signs of psychosis, including that she grew involved that others might hear her ideas.
“Her concern was that when people could hear her thoughts, her children would be removed from her care,” Zeizel mentioned throughout direct examination.
Lindsay Clancy listens to her mom, Paula Musgrove, on the witness stand throughout her trial in Plymouth Superior Court, Plymouth, Massachusetts, August 17, 2026.
Greg Derr/Pool by way of Reuters
Zeizel, who didn’t deal with Clancy prior to the killings, testified that Clancy’s intrusive ideas ultimately grew to become unrelenting. By January 2023, Zeizel advised jurors Clancy might barely get by her day, primarily based on his overview of her medical recordsdata from different suppliers. Zeizel mentioned that in his evaluation, Clancy was affected by “bipolar disorder with postpartum psychosis.”
“She wasn’t just having everyday thoughts that we all have, reminding ourselves to do something, which we make note of and then we move on,” he mentioned. “Intrusive thoughts are unrelenting. They don’t stop. They’re what we call ego dystonic — you don’t want them. They keep interfering with your ability to get through the day.”
Zeizel mentioned Clancy’s intrusive ideas “were getting worse, and they were telling her to kill herself.”
By Jan. 24, 2023 — the day Clancy killed her three youngsters — she might not decide proper from fallacious, he testified.
“She was unable to conform her behaviors to the rule of law, and she had no appreciation for the wrongfulness of her act,” he testified.
Psychologist testifies about Clancy’s telephone name to her ex-husband following killings
Zeizel beforehand provided key testimony in Clancy’s protection on Tuesday, describing a telephone name he facilitated for Clancy to her then-husband Patrick Clancy about two weeks after the killings.
Zeizel mentioned he first met with Lindsay Clancy on Feb. 4, 2023 — 11 days after she killed her youngsters — to assist consider her. He testified that Clancy, then handcuffed to a mattress in a hospital room guarded by armed officers, remembered what had occurred and requested to communicate together with her husband.
“She wanted to know how he was doing. She wanted to know if she could call him and find out where things are with her and with him, and how he was faring, and to just speak with him,” he testified.
Zeizel testified that he tried to facilitate a name over speaker telephone, however Patrick Clancy didn’t decide up. Two days later, they tried once more, he mentioned.
According to Zeizel, throughout the second name, additionally remodeled speaker telephone, Lindsay Clancy advised her husband “she loved him very much.”
“She was unable to express a lot of emotion, but she expressed love for him, and she had said that she heard a male voice ordering her, telling her that she didn’t have any choice, but she had to kill her children and then kill herself,” he advised jurors.
Zeizel testified that he has met with Clancy roughly 60 instances since then, together with throughout her trial. He testified that her intensive medical information confirmed Clancy’s signs, akin to mind fog and disassociation, appeared real and mentioned “she was not faking.”
Zeizel additionally argued that Clancy’s medicines appeared to have worsened her situation, including that the signs of psychosis differ from day to day.
Jurors beforehand heard testimony about how Clancy was prescribed 13 completely different psychiatric medicines in the 4 months earlier than she killed her youngsters.
“People with psychosis have intermittent symptoms,” Zeizel testified Tuesday. “They can function fine one day, and the next day they can be hearing voices.”
He added, “Hallucinations are like the waves at the beach: They come, go, they come and go.”
Psychologist testifies about Clancy’s declare she was listening to voices
According to Zeizel, the final time Clancy claims she heard a voice in her head was on Jan. 24, 2023, the day she killed her three youngsters.
“Currently, she has not heard voices since the event took place in 2023,” Zeizel testified Wednesday.
Zeizel additionally mentioned in his testimony that Clancy’s medical information prior to the incident didn’t mirror she was listening to a voice in her head, although she did report intrusive ideas.
Prosecutors have tried to forged doubt on Clancy’s declare that she heard a male voice in her head telling her to kill her youngsters and take her personal life prior to the killings.
According to Reddington, prosecutors have additionally urged that Zeizel planted the concept Clancy heard a voice telling her to kill her youngsters throughout their first assembly, two days earlier than she made the same remark to her husband over the telephone.
Reddington has sought to pre-emptively push again on that allegation, and an officer who stood guard outdoors Clancy’s hospital room testified beforehand that there was no proof Zeizel planted the concept.
Zeizel testified Wednesday that he realized about the voice Clancy claimed she was listening to — past overhearing her telephone name to her then-husband — from a hospital chaplain.
“I spoke to other people, who I asked about the nature of their interactions with Miss Clancy,” he advised jurors. “It was not a fishing expedition.”
Prosecutors additionally tried to recommend that Zeizel’s evaluation was impacted by affirmation bias as a result of he was not solely assessing Clancy for the sake of the trial but additionally treating her as a affected person, that means, they argued, that he would possibly assist his personal theories about her well being and overlook contradictory proof.
On redirect, Zeizel testified, “Confirmation bias is coming up with a conclusion before you reach an opinion. It’s in Latin as ‘tabula rasa’ — a blank slate. You draw no conclusion. The conclusion finds you, and if you don’t do that, you are at risk of having confirmation bias.”
If you or somebody you already know is scuffling with ideas of suicide — free, confidential assist is accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days every week. Call or textual content the nationwide lifeline at 988.