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· collected 2026-08-04 · by Sarah Rumpf-Whitten
Story summary
Lindsay Clancy, the mother from Massachusetts, is on trial for the murder of her three children: Cora (5), Dawson (3), and Callan (8 months). Her defense team argues that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings and was not acting intentionally. However, prosecutors claim that she made a deliberate decision to strangle her children on January 24, 2023, inside their home in Duxbury.
The trial has seen emotional testimony from doctors who treated Clancy and her family on the night of the murders, as well as excerpts from Clancy's diary being read aloud in court. In one entry, she wrote that she was "completely overwhelmed" trying to care for her three children and felt like she was "drowning every day". The defense team has been trying to paint a picture of Clancy as someone who was struggling with her mental health, rather than a calculating killer.
In an attempt to support this narrative, defense attorney Kevin Reddington asked a hospital psychiatrist, Dr. Sejal Shah, if someone experiencing psychosis can still communicate and make plans. Dr. Shah agreed that they could, which Reddington argued meant that Clancy's actions on the night of the murders were not necessarily intentional.
Written for “Lindsay Clancy Trial” on 2026-08-31,
grounded in this article and the 1 other(s) covering the same event.
This story discusses suicide.
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story → discuss → suicide
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
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you → know → 988
Lindsay Clancy’s attorney sought to blunt prosecutors’ portrayal of the Massachusetts mother as organized and calculating, pressing a hospital psychiatrist to acknowledge that a person can communicate, make plans and carry them out while experiencing psychosis.
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person → seek → psychosis
"People can communicate and plan and act on plans even if they’re in the middle of a psychosis, right?" defense attorney Kevin Reddington asked Dr. Sejal Shah Monday.
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Reddington → communicate → Shah
"Yes," Shah replied.
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Shah → reply → ?
Reddington then asked whether someone must be "drooling and stumbling and unable to walk and talk" to be psychotic.
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someone → ask → ?
Shah said no and agreed that a person in psychosis can still communicate with others.
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person → say → others
Clancy is charged in the deaths of Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, inside the family’s Duxbury home.
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Clancy → charge → home
Her defense maintains she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.
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she → maintain → psychosis
Prosecutors argue she acted deliberately and understood what she was doing.
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she → argue → what
Seth J. Zuckerman, a celebrity criminal defense attorney, former New York City prosecutor and founder of Zuckerman Legal Group, said the case will turn on Clancy’s mental state at the precise time the children were killed.
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children → say → time
"What was in her mind at the exact time that she killed her children?" Zuckerman told Fox News Digital.
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Zuckerman → kill → Digital
He said prosecutors have focused on Patrick Clancy’s trips to CVS and a local restaurant, along with his communications with his wife, to portray her as lucid during the critical time frame.
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prosecutors → say → frame
Psychiatrist calls Lindsay Clancy an 'honest' patient
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Psychiatrist → call → Clancy
Shah, an associate chief of psychiatry and medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, first evaluated Clancy five days after the killings.
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Shah → evaluate → killings
She testified that Clancy was confused, made mistakes during a cognitive assessment and had experienced visual hallucinations after spinal surgery.
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Clancy → testify → surgery
Shah diagnosed delirium and said possible causes included anesthesia, oxygen problems and an elevated heart rate.
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causes → diagnose → anesthesia
The symptoms resolved by the following day, Shah said.
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Shah → resolve → day
During later evaluations, Clancy appeared calm and cooperative, displayed organized and goal-directed thinking and denied hallucinations and suicidal or homicidal intent.
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Clancy → appear → hallucinations
Reddington used cross-examination to argue those observations did not establish Clancy was free of psychosis at the time of the killings.
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Clancy → use → killings
"Was she, in your opinion and your experience, an honest patient telling you what her symptoms were, if any?" Reddington asked.
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Reddington → tell → you
"Yes," Shah said.
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Shah → say → ?
"She didn’t go off and try to exaggerate to you and say, ‘I’m seeing visions, and I’m hearing voices,’ and suicidal ideation and homicidal ideas," Reddington said.
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Reddington → go → voices
"She didn’t say any of those things to you, did she?
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she → say → you
"Correct," Shah said.
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Shah → say → ?
"So this is not, in your opinion, someone who was trying to exaggerate her conditions for some legal reason, correct?" Reddington asked.
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Reddington → try → reason
"No," Shah replied.
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Shah → reply → ?
Zuckerman called that concession "extremely helpful to the defense," although not decisive.
"
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Zuckerman → call → defense
They want to portray her as someone who wasn’t manipulative, who didn’t have some grand plan," he said.
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he → want → plan
On redirect, prosecutors challenged the defense’s portrayal by focusing on Clancy’s medication history.
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prosecutors → challenge → history
Shah agreed Clancy was not taking every psychiatric medication discussed at the same time and said she had not known some prescriptions were barely used or untouched.
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prescriptions → agree → time
Shah also confirmed that Clancy requested do-not-resuscitate status after surviving her fall from a second-story window.
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Clancy → confirm → window
The hospital did not immediately change her status because of the reported suicide attempt.
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hospital → change → attempt
Shah said Clancy later agreed her mental health should be stabilized before reconsidering the request.
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health → say → request
Zuckerman said Monday’s cross-examination helped the defense by supplying testimony that Clancy could appear lucid at some moments while experiencing severe psychiatric symptoms at others.
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Clancy → say → others
Still, he said its value will depend on whether the defense can connect those symptoms to the moment the children were killed.
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children → say → moment
The burden is on the prosecutors to show that she was criminally responsible at the time of the deaths," Zuckerman said.
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Zuckerman → show → deaths
"That is unique to Massachusetts, and I think it’s beneficial to the defense here."
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it → think → defense
Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, has pleaded not guilty to three counts each of murder and strangulation.
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Clancy → plead → murder
Judge William Sullivan told jurors that the Commonwealth must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Clancy was criminally responsible when the children were killed.
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children → tell → doubt
