Lindsay Clancy, 36, strangled her three children — Cora (5), Dawson (3), and Callan (8 months) — in the basement of their Duxbury, Massachusetts home in January 2023, then jumped from a second-story window. She survived paralyzed. She has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder on the grounds that postpartum psychosis made her incapable of conforming to the law. Her defense rested this morning; prosecutors began calling rebuttal witnesses this afternoon. Judge William Sullivan has scheduled closing arguments for Monday or Tuesday.

1. She Knew What She Was Doing (Plymouth County Prosecutors, Dr. Avram Mack)

Prosecutors say mental illness doesn't equal no guilt — and their rebuttal psychiatrist says she showed no psychosis at all.

She was methodical, not psychotic. Dr. Avram Mack, the prosecution's rebuttal psychiatrist who interviewed Clancy in April 2026, testified today that she showed no psychotic symptoms on the day of the killings. Her actions were "methodical, one by one — organized, intended to achieve a goal." She had taken a child to the doctor that morning. She'd followed traffic rules. She arranged for her husband to be away.

Having a mental illness isn't the same as being not guilty. Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham told the jury in opening statements: "People with mental illness commit crimes every day and are responsible for them. The fact that someone may suffer or have a mental illness, a mental disease or defect is not the end of the inquiry when it comes to guilt or innocence."

Mack found no bipolar disorder, no mania, no psychosis. He said her mental state was "relatively stable" despite depression and concluded she "retained the capacity for responsibility of her actions."

2. She Had No Control (Defense Attorney Kevin Reddington, Dr. Phillip Resnick)

The defense says postpartum psychosis took the wheel — she was obeying voices she couldn't resist.

She believed she had no choice. Dr. Phillip Resnick, the defense's forensic psychiatrist, testified via Zoom as the final defense witness today. He said Clancy was "clearly psychotic" on the day of the killings, experiencing command hallucinations: "It was almost like she was a puppet and someone else was pulling the strings." He said she believed her children would be safer in heaven than in the world without her.

State law sets a specific bar for the insanity defense. Massachusetts requires showing that a defendant, because of mental disease or defect, was "unable to conform her conduct to the requirements of the law." Earlier in the trial, defense psychologist Dr. Paul Zeizel testified that Clancy met that standard — she had "a mental disease or a defect" and "was unable to conform her behavior to the rule of law."

She was asking for help and wasn't getting it. Her mother Paula Musgrove testified that in December 2022, Clancy disclosed having "thoughts of harming the children." Her mother-in-law said she was "begging for help." She checked herself into McLean Hospital on January 1, 2023, but was discharged after five days. Defense attorney Kevin Reddington argues her care team prescribed her up to 12 medications — benzodiazepines, Trazodone, Zoloft, Valium, Seroquel, Remeron — without ever diagnosing what she actually had.

3. The System Set This Up (Dr. Veerle Bergink, Dr. Susan Hatters Friedman, Meghan Cliffel)

Whatever the jury decides, advocates say the medical system failed Clancy — and is failing thousands of mothers right now.

Postpartum psychosis isn't even in the diagnostic manual. Postpartum psychosis affects an estimated 1-2 mothers per 1,000 births — rarer than SIDS, but serious. It isn't listed as a distinct diagnosis in the DSM. Dr. Veerle Bergink, director of the Women's Mental Health Program at Mount Sinai's Icahn School of Medicine, says the condition is "massively missed" because doctors aren't trained to recognize it.

It's treatable when caught. Lithium combined with other medications eases symptoms in 98% of postpartum psychosis patients when properly diagnosed. Doctors know how to treat it — they just rarely recognize it in time.

Mothers hide symptoms out of fear. Dr. Susan Hatters Friedman, a forensic psychiatrist at Case Western Reserve University, has studied this since the 2002 Andrea Yates case. She says mothers experiencing psychotic thoughts won't report them because they fear losing custody. If a mother doesn't disclose, doctors never catch it — and she goes untreated.

Three hundred women in pink showed up outside the courthouse Thursday. Roughly 300 supporters gathered at Plymouth County Courthouse wearing pink the day before the defense rested. Many said their presence wasn't an endorsement of what happened — it was a demand for the maternal mental health system to do better. Kevin Reddington said Clancy was "surprised and emotional" at the crowds. Meghan Cliffel, a maternal mental health advocate and postpartum psychosis survivor, calls for "family-centered care rather than baby-focused interventions" and awareness built in non-crisis moments, not just after tragedies.

Where This Lands

Prosecutors have rebuttal witnesses left before closing arguments. The jury will weigh whether Clancy knew what she was doing or was in full psychosis — the same question two psychiatrists, each testifying under oath, answered in opposite directions today. Reddington says she's a victim of a broken maternal health system that never gave her the right diagnosis or the right treatment. Prosecutors say the system's failures don't make Clancy less guilty. Advocates say the verdict won't settle the bigger problem. Postpartum psychosis isn't in the DSM. Doctors don't know how to spot it. And mothers hide their symptoms rather than risk losing the children they're struggling not to harm.

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