Lindsay Clancy Trial: Defense Psychologist Says She Had No Idea Her Actions Were Wrong

Lindsay Clancy, 34, of Duxbury, Massachusetts, is standing trial in Plymouth Superior Court for the deaths of her three children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 7-month-old Callan. Prosecutors allege she strangled them with exercise resistance bands inside the family's Summer Street home on January 24, 2023, then allegedly attempted suicide by jumping from a second-story window, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. She faces three counts of murder and three counts of strangulation, has pleaded not guilty, and her attorney, Kevin Reddington, is mounting an insanity defense built on severe postpartum psychosis and psychiatric overmedication.

Wednesday's testimony picked up right where the defense wanted it to. Clinical psychologist Dr. Paul Zeizel, called by Reddington, told jurors Clancy was gripped by intrusive thoughts so persistent she believed people could hear them — and that if they did, her children would be taken from her. She called a suicide hotline twice in December and was turned away because she didn't have a plan, which apparently was the bar. Zeizel didn't sugarcoat what these thoughts do to a person: they don't ease up, they don't take breaks, and by January, his testimony went, they'd escalated into her mind telling her to kill herself. He also made a point jurors will have to sit with — that someone can be in psychosis and still function well enough to get through a day. After extensive testing, Zeizel says he found no psychopathy, but did find bipolar disorder with postpartum psychosis, and no indication she understood the wrongness of what she was doing.

Her husband, Patrick Clancy, was out running errands when it happened and has since relocated to Manhattan. The trial is expected to run several weeks.

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This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

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