Psychologist Testifies Clancy Not Criminally Responsible in Children’s Deaths
A forensic psychologist testified Wednesday that Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of strangling her three children in 2023, was not criminally responsible for the killings because she suffered from bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis at the time of the deaths. The testimony, delivered by Dr. Paul Zeizel at Plymouth Superior Court, represents the strongest evidence yet in support of the defense’s contention that Clancy should not be held legally responsible for murder, according to AP News.
The Case
Clancy, 36, a former labor and delivery nurse from Duxbury, Massachusetts, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children — Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months — who were strangled with exercise bands on January 24, 2023. After the killings, Clancy cut her wrists and neck and jumped from a second-story window. She survived but remains paralyzed from the waist down, as USA Today reported.
Prosecutors argue that Clancy planned the killings deliberately, pointing to evidence that she sent her husband out of the house on an errand to pick up takeout food and medicine, and that she searched online for a pharmacy and restaurant that day. The defense, led by attorney Kevin Reddington, does not dispute that Clancy caused the children’s deaths but argues she was in the grip of postpartum psychosis — a rare mental illness affecting 1 to 2 per 1,000 women after childbirth — and should not be held criminally responsible, as CBS News detailed.
The Psychologist’s Testimony
Zeizel, who spent more than 35 hours with Clancy over approximately 60 meetings across three years, testified that she had no appreciation for the wrongfulness of her act and was unable to conform her behavior to the rule of law, diagnosing her with a mental disease or defect.
“She was unable to conform her behavior to the rule of law. She had no appreciation for the wrongfulness of her act,” Zeizel said, according to News4Jax.
Zeizel testified that Clancy’s condition deteriorated significantly in the months before the killings. She sought care at a perinatal clinic in December 2022 because she felt her “brain was damaged,” believed she should kill herself, and feared she would never get better. She showed signs of psychosis, was paranoid, and feared that people could hear her thoughts and that her children would be taken from her.
“She was worried that her children would be removed from her and that she would never see them again,” Zeizel said.
Zeizel also addressed a key prosecution argument — that Clancy appeared to function normally on the day of the killings, taking her daughter to a doctor’s appointment and playing with the children in the snow. He testified that individuals in a psychotic state can still perform everyday tasks like driving and searching the internet.
“So the fact she is not talking about the unicorns in the corner, she is not slurring her words and she is not unable to walk, to your opinion to a degree of medical certainty, does that mean she is not in a psychotic state?” Reddington asked. Zeizel responded: “It does not.”
Prosecution Challenges
On cross-examination, prosecutors questioned Zeizel’s credibility, pointing out mistakes in his report and suggesting he could not be objective given his dual role as both evaluator and treating clinician for the defense. They also noted that Clancy’s medical records contain no reports of her hearing voices telling her to kill herself, only that she told caregivers she “wanted to die,” as ABC11 reported.
Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham also read from daily reports at Tewksbury Hospital, the state psychiatric facility where Clancy is held, noting that records from the anniversary of the killings and what would have been her children’s birthdays showed no visible distress. Reddington countered by asking Zeizel whether the records showed Clancy “laughing, and partying and having a good time.”
“Lindsay Clancy has bad days and worse days,” Zeizel said.
Zeizel also testified that Clancy frequently speaks about her children, countering the prosecution’s suggestion that she never mentions them. “She really loves them and misses them and thinks of them every single day, almost every moment of the day,” he said, as The Boston Globe reported.
Broader Context
The case has drawn national and international attention, particularly around issues of maternal mental health. On Thursday, hundreds of supporters, many wearing pink clothing with phrases like “Believe” and “She Needed Help,” rallied outside the courthouse, as AP News reported. The trial has also sparked extensive online discussion about how the mental health system treats women.
Clancy’s mental health history before the killings included multiple outpatient providers, 30 prescriptions for 13 medications, two calls to a suicide hotline, an emergency room visit, and a five-day stay at McLean Hospital over New Year’s weekend 2023. Her last psychiatric appointment was a 17-minute telehealth session the day before the killings, as AP News reported in its coverage of her diary entries.
What’s Next
The trial, now in its fourth week, has heard from more than 70 prosecution witnesses over 14 days before the prosecution rested on August 17. The defense has called family members and expert witnesses, including psychiatrists, a forensic pathologist, and Zeizel. Closing arguments could come as soon as Monday, August 24.
If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility rather than released, as The Guardian noted in its coverage of the trial.
The jury’s decision will hinge on whether they believe Clancy’s mental state at the time of the killings deprived her of the ability to understand the wrongfulness of her actions — a determination that could have lasting implications for how the legal system and society view postpartum mental illness.