Lindsay Clancy killed her 3 children because she was ‘exhausted’ and ‘depressed,’ ‘felt damaged,’ prosecutor says: ‘She didn’t want to try anymore’

Prosecutors aren’t arguing that Lindsay Clancy wasn’t suffering when she killed her three young children. They don’t dispute that she was mentally ill or that she tried to take her own life.

Instead, in her final argument to jurors, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague offered a theory for why the Massachusetts mother killed Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan — that her children had become the one thing standing between her and ending her own life.

“She was depressed. She was exhausted. She was done. She didn’t want to try anymore. She felt damaged,” Jennifer told jurors during closing arguments on August 27, as reported by People. “But those kids, those kids were her protective factor. Those kids were keeping her from ending her misery. So she had to remove the protective factor.”

Prosecutor: Killing the children ‘was a choice’

Lindsay, a former labor and delivery nurse, 36, doesn’t deny that she strangled her three children with exercise bands inside her family’s Duxbury, Mass., home on January 24, 2023. She’s pleaded not guilty and maintains she’s not criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.

But the prosecution offered jurors a different explanation. “I’m not saying she was happy about it,” Sprague said, according to People. “I’m saying that it was what she had to do to end her misery.”

According to USA Today, Jennifer also argued that Lindsay could have taken her own life without killing her children. “She could have killed herself and left her kids alive. But it was a choice to take them with her,” the prosecutor said.

Jennifer insisted Lindsay knew right from wrong and acted deliberately, pointing jurors to the steps she took on the night of the killings.

Prosecutors allege Lindsay asked her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, to leave the house to pick up medicine and takeout food and used her phone to determine how long the trip would take.

While he was gone, prosecutors say, she brought the children into the basement and strangled them individually. Then Lindsay cut her wrists and neck and jumped from a second-story window, suffering a spinal cord injury that left her paralyzed from the waist down.

Why prosecutors say mental illness isn’t the deciding issue

The prosecutor acknowledged in her closing argument that Lindsay was mentally ill and tried to take her own life. But she told jurors that it was the legal question they had to decide.

“That’s not the issue in this trial,” Jennifer said, according to People. “The issue is whether, at the time she killed Cora, Dawson and Callan, she knew the difference between right and wrong, and whether she could conform her behavior to the requirements of the law.”

Jennifer also rejected the defense’s argument that Lindsay’s medical providers failed her by overmedicating her and inadequately treating her deteriorating mental health.

“It wasn’t the fault of the providers that she was struggling with this or that she wasn’t getting better,” she said. “They were doing the best they could with the information she provided them, and that wasn’t always accurate information. That wasn’t always the full picture.”

CNN reported that Jennifer argued Lindsay had access to medical care and support but wasn’t always forthcoming with her providers about her condition or the medications she was taking. USA Today reported that the prosecutor also accused Lindsay of withholding thoughts about harming her children because she knew her health care providers were mandated reporters and feared losing custody.

Defense: She was a ‘darn good mother’ failed by her care

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington argued that Lindsay’s actions weren’t part of a calculated murder plan but the culmination of a psychiatric crisis.

“This young lady did nothing wrong in her life. She was a nurse, a daughter, a wife and a darn good mother,” he told jurors, according to USA Today.

Holding up a photograph of the Clancy family before the killings and then pointing to an image of Lindsay hospitalized afterward, her lawyer asked how one became the other.

“Because of the d*** medicine and the lousy medical care that she got,” he said.

The defense maintains that Lindsay’s mental health deteriorated as she sought treatment following Callan’s birth and that she was overmedicated, suffered from postpartum psychosis and heard a male voice commanding her to kill the children and herself.

Kevin directed jurors to Lindsay’s handwritten notes documenting her medications and entries about “horrible thoughts,” USA Today reported. He also cited defense psychiatrist Dr. Phillip Resnick, who testified that Lindsay was “frankly psychotic” and experiencing “command hallucinations” at the time of the killings.

“This young lady is not guilty of killing her children because she was suffering from a disease or defect, as his honor instructed you,” her lawyer said. “And they’re not gonna be able to prove otherwise.”

Jury weighs murder, manslaughter or lack of criminal responsibility

The competing versions of Lindsay’s mental state are now in the hands of nine women and three men who began deliberating on August 27 after a five-week trial that included testimony from more than 80 witnesses, People reported.

The proceedings were carried live by outlets including Court TV and the Associated Press.

Judge William Sullivan told jurors they can consider first-degree murder, second-degree murder or the lesser charge of manslaughter. They can also find Lindsay not guilty or not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility.

“If you find the defendant guilty of murder, you shall decide the degree of murder,” the judge instructed the jury.

As Lindsay’s fate moved into their hands, her lawyer told reporters outside the courthouse that his client was “nervous” and “scared,” CNN reported.

After about three and a half hours of deliberations on August 27, jurors were sent home. They resumed their work on August 28.

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