Story summary
The murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, 36, nears its conclusion after five weeks of proceedings at Plymouth Superior Court in Massachusetts. Prosecutors and defense attorneys presented testimony from over 80 witnesses, including mental health professionals who debated Clancy’s state of mind when she killed her three young children—5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan—in January 2023.
Clancy pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility, arguing that postpartum psychosis made her unable to understand the wrongfulness of her actions. However, FBI psychiatrist Dr. Gregory Saathoff testified against this claim, suggesting Clancy had control over her actions and did not act under auditory hallucinations. Closing arguments are scheduled for Thursday, with jurors set to deliberate on charges including first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter, or a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Outside the courtroom, hundreds of supporters, mostly women, have gathered in solidarity with Clancy, highlighting systemic failures in maternal health care and support systems.
Written for “Lindsay Clancy Murder Trial” on 2026-09-12,
grounded in this article and the 77 other(s) covering the same event.
Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial was thrust into the national spotlight after she took the lives of her three precious children in their Duxbury, Massachusetts home in January 2023.
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she → thrust → January
The only thing standing between Clancy — who admitted to killing her children — and an acquittal by reason of insanity was one lone juror, one person who represented what’s left of justice, common sense, a heart, and sanity in our culture.
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what → stand → culture
He held the line and represents what’s left of a just and moral society.
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what → hold → society
Three jurors have now gone on TV to talk about Clancy’s case, and one actually said the lone male holdout “had the hardest time getting off the fact that Lindsay viciously killed her children.”
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Lindsay → go → children
Little do they know how much they’re helping the prosecution’s case.
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they → know → case
The fact that Lindsay viciously killed her children was not some inconvenient detail he needed to “get off.”
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he → kill → children
Digging into this murder trial has made my stomach churn.
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stomach → dig → trial
As a mother with children around the same ages as Clancy’s were when she allegedly murdered them, this case shakes me to my core.
uncertain
case → murder → core
Culture has made Clancy the victim instead of her children
Somewhere along the way, Clancy’s children shifted from being the prime victims in this case to Clancy gaining the sole victim card.
What hardly any of these mothers talk about are the actual victims: Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months.
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talk → make → mothers
Her children had to experience the very person who gave them life take it away in the very place they should have felt safest.
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they → have → place
What I believe lies at the root of this twisted support is a culture centered on self-absorption, where an adult’s pain and mental state erase the violent harm they have inflicted on others.
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they → believe → others
Compassion has become distorted when it is placed at Clancy’s feet rather than the children she strangled to death.
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she → become → death
What if a man had committed these killings?
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man → commit → killings
What if she strangled puppies instead of her own children?
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she → strangle → puppies
Would these same women be crying in solidarity with Clancy or demanding justice?
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women → cry → justice
The viral “Same, Lindsay” movement transformed Clancy from the woman who killed three children into a symbol of overwhelmed motherhood, while Cora, Dawson, and Callan were pushed to the margins.
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Cora → transform → margins
Even in my own social media circles, I’ve watched women rush to absolve Clancy of moral responsibility because of her mental health, but that’s not the same thing as being legally insane.
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that → watch → health
Five days before the killings, Clancy was Googling terms like “hallucinations” and “psychosis,” yet the doctors treating her before the killings did not observe psychosis.
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doctors → google → psychosis
If she was self-aware enough to Google those terms, why didn’t she tell her husband, doctor, nanny, or anyone else that she thought she was dangerous?
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she → google → husband
Timothy Jones Jr. claimed schizophrenia, brain injury, depression, and voices telling him his children would be better off in heaven.
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children → claim → heaven
His jury still rejected insanity and convicted him.
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jury → reject → him
Christina Riggs killed her two children and argued severe mental illness.
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Riggs → kill → illness
Her jury rejected that defense, too.
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jury → reject → defense
Those cases show that mental illness does not automatically erase criminal responsibility.
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illness → show → responsibility
Clancy also sent her husband out, checked the drive time, and killed the children while he was gone.
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he → send → children
Yet, 10 jurors were reportedly ready to find her not criminally responsible.
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her → find → ?
That shows just how far gone our culture has become.
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culture → show → ?
We’ve confused compassion with exoneration and mental illness with insanity.
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We → confuse → insanity
Someone can be deeply mentally ill and still know right from wrong.
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Someone → know → wrong
The mistrial should not turn postpartum suffering into a blanket excuse for violence
The insanity defense is not supposed to mean motherhood was unbearably hard.
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motherhood → turn → violence
Therefore, Clancy cannot be held responsible.
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Clancy → hold → ?
But that is essentially how droves of women online have distorted the case.
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droves → distort → case
Women have filmed themselves crying on bathroom floors beside wandering toddlers, screaming into cameras, throwing ice cubes, and declaring “same.”
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themselves → film → same
They are communicating something darker: motherhood is agonizing, we understand how you could reach this point and kill your children slowly and methodically.
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you → communicate → children
There is an enormous moral difference between admitting motherhood can bring out the worst in you and publicly identifying with a woman who strangled all her children.
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who → be → children
There is something deeply morally warped about mothers publicly same-ing with an alleged mass murderer.
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mothers → be → murderer
Life has gotten too easy, our standards too posh, and now anything truly hard, including raising children, is treated as unbearable.
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anything → get → children
Women used to raise far larger families with a fraction of the conveniences we have today.
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we → use → conveniences
Even in the 1950s, women averaged well over three children without grocery delivery services, endless childcare products, or other modern labor-saving technology.
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women → average → services
Clancy had support from her husband and family, childcare help, financial means, extensive medical care, and time away from her job as a labor and delivery nurse.
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Clancy → have → nurse
…and 10 more, not listed.
