PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Opening statements are set to begin Monday in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial, where jurors will hear competing arguments from prosecutors who say the Duxbury mother intentionally killed her three children and defense attorneys who contend she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and was not criminally responsible for her actions.
[ Watch opening statements on Boston 25 beginning at 9 a.m. ]
Clancy is charged with three counts of murder in the January 2023 strangulation deaths of her 5-year-old daughter, Cora, her 3-year-old son, Dawson, and her 7-month-old baby, Callan, at the family’s Duxbury home. She has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors allege the killings were intentional and planned, while Clancy’s defense team argues she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, was heavily medicated, and was not criminally responsible for her actions.
Clancy had given birth to her third child about eight months before the children were killed. According to her attorneys, she struggled with serious mental health issues in the months leading up to the tragedy and spent several days at a psychiatric hospital just weeks before the deaths.
After days of jury selection, 18 jurors were seated last week to hear the case. The panel is made up of 12 women and six men. Jurors were told the trial could last several weeks, potentially stretching to two months.
However, Boston criminal defense attorney and legal analyst Peter Elikann believes the proceedings could move more quickly because there is little dispute over what happened.
“There’s not going to be any argument about the facts of the case or what happened,” Elikann said. “Most trials, you’re trying to argue, no, she didn’t do this, or he didn’t do this, commit this murder or steal this money. Here, everybody’s going to be in lockstep and agree that the facts are what they are. There’s no debate about that. So it’s not a whodunit. It is a why-dunit.”
The central question for jurors will be whether Clancy was legally responsible for her actions at the time of the killings or whether her mental state prevented her from understanding the nature and consequences of what she was doing.
Following opening statements, the first witness expected to take the stand is Patrick Clancy, Lindsay Clancy’s husband at the time of the killings.
His testimony comes after a judge recently ruled on a request he made ahead of the trial. In an order issued Friday, Judge William F. Sullivan ruled that news organizations may not record, display, reproduce, distribute, or otherwise share the audio recording of Patrick Clancy’s initial 911 call, or any autopsy photographs of the murdered Clancy children.
The closely watched case is expected to feature extensive testimony from mental health experts.
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