Clancy trial live moves into its final phase Thursday, when jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial are expected to begin deliberations after closing arguments and the judge’s instructions on murder, mental illness and criminal responsibility. Plymouth Superior Judge William F. Sullivan told them Wednesday, “Rest up and be ready for tomorrow.”
He also told the 18-member panel to “keep an open mind” and not discuss the case before hearing final arguments. Sullivan said each side will get an hour for its closing, and six jurors will be chosen as alternates before the remaining 12 begin deciding the case.
William F. Sullivan on Thursday
The schedule leaves jurors with one more procedural step before they can weigh verdicts for each child. Sullivan said they may consider guilty of first-degree murder, guilty of second-degree murder, guilty of manslaughter, or not guilty by reason of a lack of criminal responsibility.
Judge allows 182 witnesses in Lindsay Clancy Trial Live gives the scale of the trial record, but the core question now is narrower: how the jury applies the law after hearing 21 days of testimony from 84 witnesses.
Lindsay Clancy and the jury
Clancy has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and is asserting an insanity defense. She has admitted that she strangled 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan with exercise bands in the basement of their Duxbury home on Jan. 24, 2023.
She appears in court each day in a wheelchair because she is paralyzed from the waist down. After the slayings, she slashed her wrists and neck and jumped from a second-story window.
Gregory Saathoff testimony
The last two weeks have centered on Clancy’s postpartum mental health and competing expert views on whether she was criminally responsible. Gregory Saathoff testified Wednesday that in his opinion she suffered from Bipolar II disorder but “did have the capacity to appreciate right from wrong,” and he described her as “methodical and quite controlled” on the day of the slayings.
Saathoff said she took her daughter to a pediatrician appointment, built a snowman with her children and texted photos to her husband and mother. He also said a significant amount of planning went into the killings, while prosecutors have said Clancy was depressed and overwhelmed after the birth of her third child and decided to kill herself and take the children with her.
Jurors now move from hearing evidence to applying the judge’s instructions. The answer they reach will turn on whether they accept the defense claim of a postpartum psychotic break or the prosecution’s theory that the slayings were premeditated.
