August 25, 2026 / 2:43 PM EDT
/ CBS News
The jury in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, a Massachusetts mother who killed her three children, will decide if she can be held criminally responsible for the murders.
Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in the January 2023 strangulation deaths of her children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan. The defense has argued she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings and can't be held liable due to insanity. The prosecution argues she planned the murders and was not psychotic.
If Clancy is found guilty of first-degree murder, Massachusetts law has a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. If she's convicted of a lesser murder charge, she would still face extensive prison time, but could have the possibility of parole at some point, WBZ-TV legal analyst Jennifer Roman told CBS News Boston.
Clancy's physical condition — she is paralyzed from the waist down due to an alleged suicide attempt — will likely affect where she is placed if she is convicted.
"Certainly given her physical limitations and the fact that she's on 24/7 suicide watch currently is going to influence how the prison system deals with her and manages her, if that's ultimately what happens," Roman said.
If Clancy is found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, she won't face prison time, but she also won't go free.
"She would then be committed to a state mental health facility, where she is now, indefinitely," CBS News legal analyst Caroline Polisi said on "CBS Mornings" Monday. Clancy is currently being held at Tewksbury Hospital.
Clancy would be periodically evaluated, Polisi said. If doctors deem her fit to be released, it would go to a judge to decide if she is a danger to herself or others.
Polisi compared the case to that of Andrea Yates, who in 2006 was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the murders of her five children in Texas.
"I always note Andrea Yates is still in a psychiatric facility, so this can be an indefinite confinement," Polisi said.
Under Massachusetts law, there is no time limit for commitment at a mental health facility.
"It could be in essence a life sentence at the state hospital if the faculty there ultimately decides she's not safe to return to the community," Roman said.
But the potential ramifications of a guilty or not guilty verdict should not be part of the jury's deliberations, Polisi said. The jurors have to come to a verdict based only on the law, not on what the potential repercussions are, she said.
The legal question in this case is whether Clancy had an understanding of right from wrong or had the ability to act within the law when she killed her children.
