PLYMOUTH, MASS. (WHDH) - Opening statements were delivered Monday in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy.
The Duxbury mother killed her three young children, then jumped out of a window of her home, leaving her paralyzed and in a wheelchair.
Her defense team said she is not criminally responsible for the murders because she was suffering from psychosis brought on by postpartum depression and was overmedicated.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington showed a bloody knife and graphic pictures of Clancy’s injuries when she tried to kill herself after killing her children, jumping out of a window.
“She’s not going to walk out of this courtroom; she’ll be paralyzed for the rest of her life,” Reddington said. “She’s living in hell, she knows what happens with those kids, and she wanted to die.”
Prosecutors argued Clancy made numerous choices in the days and weeks leading up to the murders that show she knew what she was doing, including choices about how she was dealing with her mental issues.
“She chose to manipulate providers, seek quick and easy fixes when depressed and when she didn’t get what she expected, sought a different doctor, changed medications after days, disengaged from treatment when she didn’t like the plan.”
The prosecutors told jurors to use their common sense and own life experiences to come to their own conclusions.
“This isn’t a public debate about women’s mental health; this is about this defendant. This isn’t the case about Lindsay Clancy who sits before you today; this is about Lindsay Clancy on January 24, 2023, at the time of the crimes. This was not a woman in a forensic psychosis. This is a woman who acted intentionally, rationally, swiftly to accomplish a specific goal. To kill.”
Investigators say Clancy used her phone to research ways to kill. Prosecutors argue she planned on strangling her children and intentionally sent her husband out of the house to pick up dinner.
18 jurors, made up of 12 women and 6 men, are seated to hear the case.
The case is expected to take up to two months to try; Clancy faces life in prison if convicted.
If the jury finds her not criminally responsible, the court will likely start the legal process to have her committed to a state psychiatric facility.
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