Clancy is on trial for the murders of 8-month-old Callan, 3-year-old Dawson and 5-year-old Cora

Closing arguments have begun in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, who is charged with murder for strangling her three young children in January 2023.

Clancy, 36, is charged with murder in the deaths of her three young children. On Wednesday, Aug. 26, Judge William Sullivan said jurors could consider first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter if they reject Clancy’s insanity defense. The manslaughter option would give jurors a lesser alternative to a murder conviction if they find Clancy criminally responsible but do not believe the killings amounted to murder.

Prosecutors allege Clancy intentionally strangled her children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan — with exercise bands in the basement of their Duxbury, Mass., home while her husband went to pick up takeout and medication on Jan. 24, 2023.

After the killings, the former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital jumped from a second-story window in an apparent suicide attempt, which left her paralyzed from the waist down.

Clancy does not deny killing the children. She has pleaded not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility, and her defense attorney has argued that Clancy was overmedicated, suffered from postpartum psychosis and hallucinated a voice telling her to kill her children.

Kevin Reddington, Clancy’s attorney, told jurors in his closing argument Thursday morning that Cora, Dawson and Callan are the victims in the case.

“They are the victims of the horrible, horrific act that has been laid at your feet as jurors to decide whether or not Lindsay is guilty,” he said.

He said the prosecution “has ripped the soul out” of Clancy. He held up a photo of Clancy with her husband and their children and another showing Clancy hospitalized after the killings. He then asked how the family went from the first photo to the second.

“Because of the damn medicine and the lousy medical care that she got,” he told jurors. Reddington criticized the prosecution’s case and argued the medical care she received was inadequate.

The closely watched five-week trial held in Plymouth County Superior Court has drawn national attention and sparked discussion about postpartum mental health and the treatment of women experiencing psychiatric crises.

More than 80 witnesses testified during the proceedings, including medical experts, friends, law enforcement officers and Clancy’s ex-husband Patrick.

Patrick told jurors during the first day of trial that Clancy built a snowman with her children just hours before killing them.

Patrick testified he was working from home in the basement at the time.

“She seemed happy,” he said, adding that she was having “one of her best days.”

Prosecutors allege Clancy asked Patrick to pick up medicine and takeout dinner and used the GPS on her cell phone to calculate how long he would be gone.

Patrick came home and discovered Lindsay injured in the yard after she had cut her wrists and neck and jumped from a second-story window. He then found the children dead in the basement with exercise bands around their necks.

Source: https://people.com/lindsay-clancy-closing-arguments-defense-damn-medicine-12067597?utm_campaign=peoplemagazine&utm_content=photo&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_term=6a90627e3e0fe8000134a266&fbclid=IwY2xjawT-OotwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMTlGNUNJOTJQUW82dkVFT2JzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeriwOepUwWEVCA4lwOAO1wIl6Colqiyyg5PojR9Ydb5juPQoXpi5U8WrcDcw_aem_rbXgc1pWrBH_7KBqLQJk6w