Lindsay Clancy strangled her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — at their Duxbury, Massachusetts home on January 24, 2023, then tried to kill herself by jumping from a window, which left her paralyzed from the waist down. She doesn't dispute killing them. Jury selection began July 20; testimony opened July 27, and closing arguments wrapped August 27. Since then, the jury has deliberated roughly 30 hours over five days and told the judge twice — Tuesday and Wednesday this week — that they're deadlocked. Under Massachusetts law, a judge can only send a stuck jury back twice before declaring a mistrial; jurors are due back Thursday morning for what could be their last shot at a verdict.

1. The Defense (Kevin Reddington, Dr. Phillip Resnick)

Clancy wasn't making choices. She was in a psychotic break.

She couldn't tell right from wrong. Defense attorney Kevin Reddington and forensic psychiatrist Dr. Phillip Resnick argue Clancy was in the grip of postpartum psychosis and heard commanding voices, meaning she couldn't appreciate that what she was doing was wrong or control her own behavior. Resnick testified that Clancy "due to her mental disease — was unable to conform her conduct to the requirements of the law."

A hung jury is proof this isn't simple. After the second deadlock note, Reddington called the jurors "a tribute to the system," reading the length of deliberation as confirmation the case is genuinely close.

2. The Prosecution (Jennifer Sprague, Plymouth County ADA)

She knew exactly what she was doing.

She planned this — it wasn't psychosis. Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague told jurors Clancy "knew the difference between right and wrong" and was functioning as a capable "functioning mom" making deliberate choices that day — including arranging for her husband to leave the house on errands.

The timeline argues against a break with reality. Prosecutors say Clancy was well past the narrow window most closely tied to acute postpartum psychosis onset, and that her sequencing that day showed planning, not psychosis.

3. Maternal Mental Health Advocates (Wendy Davis, Dr. Susan Hatters Friedman, Meghan Cliffel, Dr. Veerle Bergink)

This case is a symptom of a health system that keeps failing mothers in crisis.

Postpartum psychosis is temporary and treatable — when it's caught. Wendy Davis, executive director of Postpartum Support International, says "every perinatal mental health disorder is temporary, treatable," and that real prevention comes from wider public awareness of the symptoms.

Survivors see themselves in Clancy. Meghan Cliffel, who survived postpartum psychosis in 2015, says of the case, "That could have been me," and calls it "infuriating to watch the hyper interest in this case without any proactive support" for women going through the same crisis.

Equating the illness with the crime backfires. Dr. Susan Hatters Friedman, a reproductive and forensic psychiatrist at Case Western Reserve University, warns that treating postpartum psychosis as synonymous with infanticide in the public mind could scare other women away from seeking help.

New moms aren't getting the care they need. Dr. Veerle Bergink, director of Mount Sinai's Women's Mental Health Center, calls postpartum psychosis's continued absence from standard diagnostic manuals "scandalous" and the U.S. maternal mental healthcare gap "a painful reality." About 400 supporters, most in pink, rallied outside the Plymouth courthouse last month with signs reading "She Needed Help" and "Peace For Lindsay." Patrick, the children's father and Clancy's ex-husband, has publicly asked for forgiveness for her since days after the killings, writing, "I wasn't married to a monster. I was married to someone who got sick."

4. Public Critics (Peyton O'Brien)

Sympathy for Clancy isn't a mental-health win — it's an excuse for killing three kids.

Clancy had resources most women in crisis don't. Content creator Peyton O'Brien argues Clancy had access to "therapy, hospitals, postpartum care" that many women lack, which makes her a poor symbol for the maternal mental health cause.

She worries this sets women back. O'Brien said: "You're sending us back 100 years. We've been trying to prove to men since the beginning of time that our hormones do not affect our ability to be leaders or strong women or good mothers." She added: "Mental health is real. Women need postpartum support. Lindsay Clancy is not the poster child for that."

Where This Lands

The jury's own deadlock mirrors the split outside the courtroom. Reddington and Resnick say Clancy's mind broke with reality; Sprague says she made a series of deliberate choices. Davis, Cliffel, Friedman and Bergink see a health system that let a mother in crisis fall through the cracks. O'Brien sees a defense that risks excusing the killing of three children. If jurors deadlock a third time Thursday, Judge William Sullivan can declare a mistrial — and none of these camps will have gotten their answer.

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