Jury weighs whether Lindsay Clancy is criminally responsible for killing her children

PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Lindsay Clancy strangled her three children because she was depressed and tired of living, not because of failings with mental healthcare, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday before they began deliberating in her murder trial.

“It was a choice to take them with her," prosecutor Jennifer Sprague said. “It is a choice that we don’t want to think about that a mother could make.”

“But it’s a choice she made,” Sprague said.

Clancy’s mental state is at the center of the closely watched trial that has drawn attention to maternal mental health after childbirth. The debate has stirred deep divisions among the public over whether she should be held criminally responsible for the January 2023 killings.

Her attorney contends she was experiencing postpartum psychosis when she killed her children, telling jurors she was a loving mother before her mental health spiraled and that she repeatedly sought help that failed her. The rare mental illness is linked to stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes following childbirth.