EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.
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PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial started a second day of deliberations Friday to determine whether she was responsible for her actions when she killed her three children in 2023.
Clancy admits she strangled her children, but her lawyer said she did it because she had lost her grip on reality due to postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness that can follow childbirth. In the months before the killings, Clancy sought treatment for her worsening mental health, including a stay in a psychiatric hospital.
Prosecutors said Clancy knew what she was doing. They say she killed the children because she was depressed and tired of living, and made a conscious choice to take her children with her before killing herself.
Lindsay Clancy watches jurors as they enter the courtroom to start their second day of deliberations in her murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026 in Plymouth Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
A packed courtroom gallery listens during closing arguments in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Assistant DA Jennifer Sprague makes her closing arguments for the jury asking them to find Clancy guilty during the Lindsay Clancy murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington holds up a picture of the Clancy family before the murders during closing arguments in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
The jury met for a few hours Thursday without reaching a verdict. Members of the panel could find her guilty of murder or the lesser crime of manslaughter, or acquit her if they decide she wasn’t in control of herself due to her psychiatric problems.
Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility. She did not testify during the trial, but jurors heard at length from medical professionals who treated her, as well as from friends and relatives she had told about her mental health problems.
Jurors also heard from medical experts called by prosecutors and the defense who disagreed about her likely state of mind when she killed her children, Cora, Dawson and Callan Clancy, ages 5, 3 and 8 months, at their Massachusetts home.
The killings happened less than three weeks after Clancy was discharged from a psychiatric hospital. She jumped from a second-floor window after strangling the children, but survived. She remains paralyzed from the waist down.
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