A mother accused of killing her three young children with a fitness band has appeared in court in theUnited States. Lindsay Clancy, 35, was seen in the courtroom inMassachusettsin a wheelchair to face two separate jury decisions — one on whether she carried out the killings and another on whether she was legally insane at the time.
Lawyers argued hermurdertrial should be split in two because of claims she was suffering from postpartum psychosis. She denies the charges. Prosecutors allege the former nurse strangled her children — Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan — with a fitness band at the family’s home in January 2023 after sending her husband out to collect food. After the attack she attempted to take her own life by jumping from a window, leaving her paralysed permanently.
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Her defence team says the case is not about whether she caused the deaths but about her mental condition, arguing she was experiencing severe postpartum psychosis and heavily affected by psychiatric medication.
They want jurors to decide if she had a “mental disease or defect” that would have impacted her actions at the time of the children’s deaths and only then consider whether she can be held criminally responsible.
Prosecutors opposed the move, insisting the killings were planned.
Investigators previously pointed to alleged preparation before the incident and messages suggesting resentment toward the children.
Experts say postpartum psychosis — a rare but severe psychiatric condition following childbirth — can cause delusions and detachment from reality, which in some cases forms the basis of an insanity defence.
Clancy was taking 12 medications at the time of the killings and at no point was her husband told not to leave her alone.
Source: Daily Express :: World Feed
