Medical experts, ex-mother-in-law testify for defense in Clancy trial
Aug. 18 (UPI) — Medical experts and a family member testified in a Massachusetts courtroom Tuesday that Lindsay Clancy’s mental health was so precarious that she cannot be held responsible for the strangulation deaths of her three children.
A trio of doctors and Clancy’s former mother-in-law, Susan Clancy, each testified in her defense as her attorneys sought to show the 36-year-old defendant is not guilty of murdering her children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan — at their Duxbury, Mass., home on Jan. 24, 2023 due to mental illness.
While not denying she killed the children, they contend she is not criminally responsible because she was suffering from bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis.
The Plymouth County, Mass., District Attorney’s Office, however, argues that Clancy was not experiencing psychosis when she strangled the children and jumped from a window, suffering permanent paralysis from the waist down.
After the prosecution rested its case last week, the defense continued with its own case.
Among the medical experts taking the stand Tuesday was Dr. Paul Zeizel, a clinical and forensic psychologist who testified about meeting with Clancy at the hospital after the killings.
After testifying that Clancy told him she had “fuzzy” memories of the killings, he said she told him she heard a man’s demanding she kill the children and then herself.
Zeizel forcefully suggestions of having “planted” that story with Clancy.
Also testifying for the defense was another medical expert, former medical examiner Dr. Elizabeth Laposata, who spoke about the injuries Clancy suffered in her suicide attempt in an apparent effort to counter prosecutors’ suggestions that she had not jumped out a window.
Another medical witness, Dr. Donald Condie, testified that Clancy exhibited symptoms consistent with postpartum depression, such as brain fog and anxiety.
The day’s testimony also included emotional words from Susan Clancy, the mother of Patrick Clancy, who said the couple had a “very good relationship,” WBTS-TV reported.
“She was very nurturing, very loving, she was a wonderful mother. Wonderful,” she said of Lindsay. “She loved her children, all of them, very, very much.”
A former nurse, Susan Clancy she said she noticed a change in Lindsay’s personality after the birth of Callan, the youngest child.
“She reached out to me in November and told me that she felt unwell,” she said. “Mostly, she had insomnia, she was losing her appetite, she was very anxious and sad.”