LINDSAY Clancy prosecutors were shut down by the judge after a fiery question to the defense’s star witness was struck from the record during a showdown over the Andrea Yates case.

The dramatic moment came as renowned forensic psychiatrist Dr Phillip Resnick was grilled about his conclusion that Clancy was psychotic when she killed her three children.

Lindsay Clancy, looks toward reporters in the courtroom during proceedings in her murder trial, in Plymouth, Massachusetts on August 20, 2026

Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham reads from evidence during day 16 of Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Massachusetts on August 19, 2026

The tense exchange unfolded Friday at Plymouth Superior Court in Massachusetts as Resnick, who also testified for Andrea Yates, faced cross-examination from Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague.

Resnick had told jurors that Clancy hid the full extent of her thoughts about harming the children because she feared they would be taken away from her.

Sprague then asked, “So it’s better to kill them than to have them taken away?”

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington immediately objected, and Judge William Sullivan struck the question from the record.

The clash came as prosecutors pressed Resnick over comparisons between Clancy and Yates, the Texas mother who drowned her five children in 2001 and was later found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Yates was ultimately found not guilty by reason of insanity at her 2006 retrial and committed to a state psychiatric hospital rather than prison.

Sprague highlighted stark differences between the two women as she challenged Resnick’s conclusions about Clancy.

The prosecutor noted that Yates had been hospitalized multiple times before killing her children and had previously attempted suicide after experiencing psychotic symptoms, according to CBS Boston.

Sprague then suggested Clancy acted immediately after hearing the male voice she says ordered her to kill the children.

“Ms. Clancy heard the voice and immediately acted, is that correct?” she asked.

Resnick pushed back, saying Clancy had already experienced impulses to harm her children but had resisted them before what he described as a command hallucination overwhelmed her.

The forensic psychiatrist had earlier delivered some of the defense’s strongest testimony yet, telling jurors Clancy was “frankly psychotic” on January 24, 2023.

Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer Kevin Reddington, seen in court on Thursday, has finally said why the jury was mysteriously dismissed early during the last week of her trial

Andrea Yates drowned her five children in 2001 and was later found not guilty by reason of insanityston home

Resnick said he believed she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and a severe depressive episode, and diagnosed her with bipolar disorder with major depression.

He said Clancy experienced not only a “command hallucination” but also what psychiatrists call a delusion of influence.

“She felt that her body was taken over by an external force,” Resnick testified.

He compared the sensation to being a puppet whose strings were being controlled by somebody else.

Resnick also described the killings as “altruistic filicide,” telling jurors he believed Clancy’s psychotic thinking convinced her that killing the children would protect them.

He said Clancy believed they would be better off going to heaven with her than remaining alive without their mother.

In Resnick’s opinion, Clancy believed what she was doing was “morally right” and could not conform her actions to the law.

The psychiatrist also testified that psychological testing commissioned by the government found no evidence that Clancy was exaggerating or faking psychiatric symptoms.

Instead, he said the results suggested she had a tendency to minimize what she was experiencing.

Resnick appeared by Zoom after an unexpected health problem left him unable to travel to Massachusetts, with technical glitches briefly forcing jurors out of the courtroom Friday morning.

Lindsay strangled her three children Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and eight-month-old Callan on January 24, 2023

Patrick Clancy sits on the stand during the Lindsay Clancy murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Massachusetts on July 29, 2026

The 90-year-old psychiatrist has spent decades in forensic medicine and has consulted or testified in some of America’s most notorious criminal cases.

His past cases include serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and Casey Anthony, as well as Yates.

After Resnick stepped down, Reddington formally ended Clancy’s case.

“Your honor, Lindsay Clancy rests,” he told Sullivan.

Prosecutors immediately began calling rebuttal experts in a bid to dismantle the defense’s claims about Clancy’s mental state.

Their first witness, psychiatrist Dr. Avram Mack, offered a dramatically different assessment.

Mack testified that Clancy suffered a major depressive episode but said he found no evidence she had experienced mania, hypomania or psychosis before the killings.

He told jurors Clancy displayed organized behavior on January 24, including taking Cora to a doctor and having normal conversations.

Mack concluded that she retained the ability to understand her actions were wrong and should therefore be considered criminally responsible.

Clancy, 36, admits strangling Cora, Dawson and Callan inside the family’s Duxbury home before cutting herself and jumping from a second-story window.

She has pleaded not guilty to murder, with her lawyers arguing that severe mental illness meant she was not criminally responsible.

Prosecutors maintain Clancy deliberately killed the children and understood exactly what she was doing.

The prosecution is expected to finish its rebuttal witnesses before both sides deliver closing arguments early next week.

Jurors will then face the central question that has dominated the trial, whether Clancy was legally responsible for killing her three children or was so mentally ill that she could not understand or control what she was doing.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/16877169/lindsay-clancy-prosecution-andrea-yates-comparisons/