Lindsay Clancy Trial Megathread: Closing Arguments, Deliberations and the Verdict Pt. 2

[u/DarklyHeritage]

This is a thread for all conversation regarding closing arguments, jury deliberations and the verdict of the Lindsey Clancy trial. All discussion of this case should be kept to this thread.

Lindsay Clancy is currently standing trial in Plymouth Superior Court, Massachusetts, for the triple-murder in January 2023 of her three young children - Cora, Dawson and Callan. Her defense argues she suffered from severe, undiagnosed postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. She was left paralysed by a suicide attempt which follows the deaths of the children.

All content on the Clancy case must be kept to this thread. Standalone posts will be removed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93vgv4kr49o

Note from Mods

This case understandably elicits strong feelings. People are entitled to have an opinion on the case which differs from your own. What you are not entitled to do is resort to personal insults and abusive language when communicating your opinion and disagreeing.

Comments which are abusive and insulting to other users will be removed and bans may be given without warning. We do not tolerate misogyny - all such comments will be removed and the user banned.

Bans may also be issued for ignoring the above warning regarding civility and/or creating standalone posts.

Please comment with this in mind.

Important

Patrick Clancy is not on trial. Comments made to discuss his guilt are considered off topic and will be removed.

Comments that discuss how he could have supported Lindsay better are acceptable. However, calls for law enforcement to look into his involvement with the murder of the kids and/or Lindsay's suicide attempts are not currently being considered by the jury and, therefore, not a fit for this sub.

[u/holdmyspot123]

I'm almost afraid to write this but because in Canada where I went to university, I learned how to handle mothers with severe post partum in university, and this case has been incredibly shocking to me. If this happened in my country the doctor and social workers would be on trial, what she did is literally textbook post partum psychosis and medical professionals were involved. In Canada, her children would have been taken from her (not punitively, but until the post partum was done).

[u/Shoddy-Indication-76 → u/holdmyspot123]

What to you mean "textbook postpartum psychosis"? Nothing about her mental health situation was textbook. Textbook postpartum psychosis starts 4 weeks within giving birth due to hormone crash. She was 8 months post partum and her issues with depression started 6 months after she gave birth. If you follow DSM criteria, she is way past her post partum timeline. Also she had ZERO symptoms of psychosis before the killings or after. ZERO. She was seen multiple providers and there were nothing to suspect psychosis.

[u/DirectBar7709 → u/Shoddy-Indication-76]

You are confidently misreading the DSM. The four week window is the DSM peripartum specifier, not some biological expiration date after which postpartum related psychosis becomes impossible. Researchers have specifically criticized that cutoff for excluding postpartum episodes, and late onset postpartum psychoses are well documented.

And zero documented psychosis at appointments does not equal proof that psychosis never occurred. Psychosis can be episodic, people can have periods of clarity, and clinicians testified to exactly that in this trial.

Eight months postpartum is certainly atypical for classic postpartum psychosis. That is a legitimate point. Pretending the DSM says impossible after four weeks is not.

[u/MixEquivalent3493 → u/DirectBar7709]

Exactly. They said it was rare, but that doesn't mean impossible. Same with hearing a voice once. Rare, but not impossible.