Lindsay Clancy 'scared and nervous' as jury ends first day of deliberations in children's murder trial

Lindsay Clancy is feeling "scared" and "nervous" as she awaits a verdict that will determine the rest of her life, according to her defence attorney.

Deliberations began on Thursday afternoon at Plymouth County Superior Court in Massachusetts, where a panel of nine women and three men spent several hours weighing whether the 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse should be held criminally responsible for the deaths of her three young children.

Clancy is accused of using exercise bands to strangle her five-year-old daughter Cora, three-year-old son Dawson, and eight-month-old son Callan inside the basement of the family's Duxbury home in January 2023.

Following the killings, Clancy cut her wrists and neck before jumping from a second-story window in an apparent suicide attempt that left her permanently paralyzed from the waist down.

Speaking outside the courthouse after jurors were sent home for the day without reaching a verdict, defence attorney Kevin Reddington addressed his client’s emotional state and expressed confidence in the proceedings.

"I think that they have to weigh all of this evidence, and I believe that the government ultimately has not proven their case," Reddington told reporters.

Clancy has never denied killing her children, however her defence argued she was not criminally responsible due to postpartum psychosis (John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Image)

The trial, which has spanned more than four weeks and included testimony from over 80 witnesses, has ignited an intense international debate surrounding maternal mental healthcare, overprescription, and postpartum psychiatric emergencies.

Throughout the proceedings, the defence argued that Clancy experienced an acute psychiatric breakdown driven by postpartum psychosis, exacerbated by an aggressive cocktail of psychiatric medications prescribed in the months leading up to the tragedy. Holding up contrasting photos in court—one of a smiling family portrait and another of Clancy hospitalized in the aftermath—Reddington asked jurors how the situation deteriorated so drastically.

"Because of the damn medicine and the lousy medical care that she got," Reddington argued during his closing statement.

Prosecutors, however, rejected the claim that Clancy was legally insane at the time of the killings, maintaining that she acted with deliberate planning and premeditation while her husband was out picking up dinner.

The jury failed to reach a verdict on day one of deliberations (Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

"The issue is whether, at the time she killed Cora, Dawson and Callan, she knew the difference between right and wrong, and whether she could conform her behavior to the requirements of the law," prosecutor Jennifer Sprague told the court.

Sprague contended that Clancy was overwhelmed and looking for a way out of her depression: "She was depressed. She was exhausted. She was done. She didn't want to try anymore. She felt damaged. But those kids, those kids were her protective factor. Those kids were keeping her from ending her misery. So she had to remove the protective factor."

Jurors are considering multiple potential verdicts, including first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter, and not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Clancy faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. If however, they accept her defence and find her not guilty, she will spend the rest of her life in a psychiatric facility.

Deliberations are scheduled to resume on Friday morning.