PLYMOUTH, Massachusetts (LifeSiteNews) — After deliberating yesterday and today, the jurors in the Lindsay Clancy triple child murder trial were dismissed by the judge for the weekend.
Their deliberations follow five weeks of intense testimony during a sensational trial that has gripped the entire nation, revealing a surprise army of perhaps millions of women who support Clancy as a heroic figure.
The jurors were once again warned by Judge William Sullivan not to discuss the trial with anyone and not to look at or read coverage of the trial. In the age of smartphones and social media with news and gossip at everyone’s fingertips, many wonder how it’s even possible for the jurors — nine women and three men — to follow the judge’s orders.
Clancy faces several possible verdicts, individually for each of her three children whose lives she brutally ended:
- Not guilty;
- Life in prison without the possibility of parole if found guilty of first-degree murder;
- Life in prison with the possibility of parole if found guilty of murder in the second degree;
- Up to 20 years in prison if the jury were to find her guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter;
- Confinement in a mental hospital if found not guilty by reason of insanity, in which case she could eventually be released if found to no longer be a threat to society.
It’s also possible that the jury will be unable to reach a verdict, in which case the judge would be forced to declare a mistrial and Clancy would face a new trial.
During closing arguments, Clancy’s lawyer argued that his client “did nothing wrong” despite having murdered her three young children, ages five, three, and 8 months by strangulation.
“This young lady did nothing wrong in her life,” defense attorney Kevin Reddington claimed as he appealed to the jury.
“She was a nurse, a daughter, a wife, and a darn good mother,” he also claimed.
The prosecution painted a much different picture of Clancy, describing how she choked each of her children to death — a process that took one to two minutes each — before leaving them “discarded on the basement floor like broken toys.”
Nobody denies that Clancy killed her children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan — with rubber exercise bands.
The prosecution previously stated that she “acted intentionally, rationally and swiftly” rather than in a moment of postpartum psychosis; she very deliberately planned the murders by researching them ahead of time and ensured her husband was out of the house. The defense has insisted that the killings were triggered by a lethal combination of psychiatric medications and her postpartum struggles.
Earlier this week, Dr. Kirk Heilbrun, a forensic psychologist who examined Clancy, testified that he doubts her claim that she was hallucinating while killing her children, concluding that she was criminally responsible. He noted that “she retained an awareness of the illegality of killing others, including killing her children.”