Lindsay Clancy Trial Focuses on Mental Health in Second Week

The murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, a former nurse accused of killing her three young children in their Massachusetts home, entered its second week with pivotal testimony focused on her mental health in the months before the deaths. Clancy, 35, faces three counts of first-degree murder in the January 24, 2023, strangulation deaths of her children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months. She has pleaded not guilty, with her defense arguing she was in the midst of a psychotic episode stemming from postpartum mental illness and is not criminally responsible. Prosecutors contend she acted intentionally and rationally.

The proceedings in Plymouth County Superior Court featured testimony from psychiatrists who treated Clancy before the killings, detailed accounts of her physical injuries after a suicide attempt, and the reading of her private diary entries. In a rare moment, Clancy herself spoke in court on Tuesday, answering the judge's questions about a legal stipulation with an even voice, marking her first audible words in the trial. She also displayed visible emotion, sobbing and shaking on Thursday as a medical examiner testified about the autopsy of her infant son, Callan.