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Not just guilty or not – The jury's options in Lindsay Clancy's murder trial

Lindsay Clancy's murder trial has gripped the American public for the last five weeks. The 36-year-old former nurse killed her three small children in the basement of their family home in Massachusetts. Charged with three counts of first-degree murder, she does not dispute killing her two sons and daughter in 2023. But her lawyer argues […]

By deepak · September 1, 2026 · 2 min read

Lindsay Clancy's murder trial has gripped the American public for the last five weeks.

The 36-year-old former nurse killed her three small children in the basement of their family home in Massachusetts.

Charged with three counts of first-degree murder, she does not dispute killing her two sons and daughter in 2023.

But her lawyer argues she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time, and therefore could not distinguish right from wrong.

The prosecution, on the other hand, argues Clancy made a calculated, intentional decision to kill them and knew right from wrong in that moment.

On Tuesday morning, after three days of deliberation, a jury of nine women and three men will continue to deliberate, with several options before them:

This hinges on the postpartum psychosis defence – her legal team argued that Clancy hallucinated a voice that told her to kill the children.

Expert witnesses told the court how severe this illness can be, and family members testified about Clancy's state of mind.

Under Massachusetts law, there is no burden on Clancy to prove her mental illness and that she lacked criminal responsibility.

Rather, it is on the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that she was criminally responsible when she killed her children, criminal defence lawyer Elyse Hershon told the BBC.

They can do this by either proving beyond reasonable doubt that she didn't suffer from a mental illness at the time or that, while she had a mental illness, she still controlled her actions and knew they were wrong.

A not guilty verdict would mean Clancy went free but that is considered highly unlikely. Much more likely is a not guilty by reason of insanity, which would result in Clancy being detained at a hospital.

"The case really comes down to where she is going to serve the rest of her life; the defence thinks it should be a psychiatric facility, the prosecution thinks it should be in a state prison," Hershon said.

Watch: What is postpartum psychosis and why is it central in the Lindsay Clancy trial?

This is the most serious potential outcome for Clancy – being found guilty of first-degree murder, which is the intentional and premeditated killing of another person.

Source: Read the original article on www.bbc.co.uk

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