Jurors within the intently watched Lindsay Clancy trial started deliberating final week, however had not reached a verdict by the end of the day Friday. They resumed their deliberations shortly after 9 a.m. ET Monday.
They have quite a bit to think about.
Over the previous 5 weeks, the jury heard testimony from medical doctors, first responders, kinfolk and even Clancy’s former husband. It now weighs the query of whether or not she must be held criminally accountable for killing her three younger kids at her Massachusetts dwelling in 2023.
The destiny of the Duxbury mom charged with homicide within the deaths of her three kids is now within the fingers of the jury. Our analysts take an in depth take a look at the prosecution’s and the protection’s closing arguments, focus on the decision choices earlier than jurors and speak about how lengthy they could deliberate within the high-profile case.
Both sides agree Clancy did it. But her attorneys argue the previous labor and supply nurse was affected by postpartum psychosis on the time, and that poor psychological healthcare exacerbated her situation. Prosecutors argue she deliberately deliberate the killings.
If Clancy is convicted, her sentence might be as extreme as life in jail. If she’s discovered not responsible, she could also be launched or stay confined in a psychological well being facility.
As the jury continues deliberating, listed here are moments from the trial they could be contemplating.
Clancy’s former husband made anguished 911 name
Clancy’s former husband, Patrick Clancy, was first to take the stand.
In emotional testimony, he described the day he discovered his spouse after she tried to kill herself.
Lindsay Clancy had despatched him out to get takeout meals and drugs for his or her daughter, which prosecutors argue was an excuse to get him out of the home.
He got here dwelling to seek out the home unusually silent, earlier than discovering blood all through the principle bed room and a window open.
Jurors listened to the 911 name Patrick Clancy made after discovering his spouse outdoors within the snow. Clancy may be heard talking together with his spouse, then tells the dispatcher he’s going to examine on the kids.
It was a deeply emotional day in court docket for the Lindsay Clancy homicide trial as prosecutors performed the 911 name that her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, made when he found her outdoors their dwelling and the kids fatally injured inside. Our reporter and courtroom insider, who had been within the room, share what it was like to listen to the decision.
Moments later, he howls and cries after discovering his kids within the basement. The confused dispatcher repeatedly asks what occurred.
“She killed the kids!” he yells.
Everyone knew Clancy was struggling
Clancy’s mom, mother-in-law, sister, mates and associates testified that Clancy struggled together with her psychological well being after giving delivery to Callan, the youngest of her three kids.
Clancy’s mother-in-law, Susan Clancy, mentioned she and her former daughter-in-law had been shut. Both labored as labor and supply nurses. She described Lindsay as an exquisite mom.
But Susan Clancy testified that Lindsay had turn into anxious, paranoid and suicidal, and that the psychiatric care she was getting wasn’t serving to.
“She felt unwell. She had insomnia. She was losing her appetite. She was very anxious and sad,” Susan Clancy mentioned. “She was begging for help.”
Lindsay Clancy’s mom, Paula Musgrove, testified that her daughter was afraid of sleeping alone, turned paranoid and believed the drugs she was taking “were destroying her mind.”
“Mom, will you please come up and stay with me for a bit? I’m really sick. Something is wrong,” Clancy wrote in an October 2022 textual content message that Paula Musgrove learn in court docket. “I had horrible insomnia all night, and I just don’t know how I am going to get through the day. … It’s just really scary, and I don’t want to be alone.”
The protection questioned the standard of Clancy’s medical care
Clancy saw several doctors about her declining psychological well being, and ultimately checked herself in to a psychiatric hospital.
Her lawyer, Kevin Reddington, argued that she was misdiagnosed and overmedicated.
As he cross-examined considered one of her psychiatrists, Dr. Jennifer Tufts, Reddington questioned her experience, prescribing selections and use of 25-minute video appointments with restricted time for discuss remedy.
At one level, Reddington implied that Tufts was a box-checking “robot.”
“What did you do? You had a woman who was telling you she felt hopeless,” he requested as they mentioned an appointment about two months earlier than the killings.
“I told her that this was something we could address, that there was hope, that there are treatments, that there are different types of programs,” Tufts mentioned, “so she knew that she still had options and a reason to hope.”
Clancy mentioned she heard a voice telling her to kill
Paul Zeizel, a medical and forensic psychologist who visited Lindsay Clancy within the hospital after she killed the kids, testified that he overheard her saying that a disembodied male voice had informed her she had no alternative however to kill her kids after which herself. Zeizel mentioned he believed Clancy wasn’t chargeable for her actions due to her deep psychological sickness.
Prosecutors known as a rebuttal witness, forensic psychologist Kirk Heilbrun, who mentioned he didn’t imagine Clancy had hallucinated voices.
“One of the things that she said when I asked about what happened, is that in the course of strangling each child, she said, ‘Go to God, baby. Go to God,’” he mentioned. “That was part of her expectation that she and the children would be together in heaven with God.”
Dr. Gregory Saathoff, a senior psychiatrist for the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, testified for prosecutors that Clancy “had the capacity to know right from wrong.”
Jurors heard from a forensic pathologist who make clear what he says was within the Duxbury mom’s thoughts on the evening she killed her three kids, and what her life’s been like within the hospital. The decide additionally dominated that her staff couldn’t name as a witness a TikTok influencer who used to work at one other hospital the place Clancy was admitted. Here’s have full evaluation of the day in court docket.
The legal professionals obtained the final phrase
After testimony was full, both sides obtained about an hour to make their closing argument to the jury.
Reddington confirmed the jury {a photograph} of the Clancy household, wanting pleased, and a second considered one of Lindsay Clancy within the hospital.
“How does this turn into this?” Reddington requested. “How? Because of the damn medicine and the lousy medical care that she got.”
Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague mentioned criticizing the psychological well being system was “a distraction.” She mentioned Clancy selected to kill her kids as a result of doing so would make it simpler to kill herself.
“She was depressed. She was exhausted. She was done. She didn’t want to try anymore. She felt damaged,” Sprague mentioned. “But those kids, those kids were her protective factor. Those kids were keeping her from ending her misery.”
With closing arguments within the Lindsay Clancy homicide trial completed and the jury starting to deliberate the case, NBC10 Boston chief authorized analyst Michael Coyne shared his impression of each closing statements and courtroom insider Sue O’Connell mentioned what she noticed from the jury and its foreperson. Watch all that and way more from our live protection from inside and outdoors court docket Thursday.