Lindsay Clancy trial: What happened on second day of deliberations

Jurors in the high-profile Lindsay Clancy murder trial resumed deliberations Friday morning, August 28, entering their second day of discussions to determine whether the 36-year-old mother is guilty of killing her three children in January 2023.

Clancy, who claims not guilty on account of lack of criminal responsibility, acknowledges that she strangled her 5-year-old daughter Cora, 3-year-old son Dawson, and 8-month-old son Callan at their Massachusetts home in Duxbury. The defence believes she was under the influence of postpartum psychosis, which caused her to hear voices commanding her to commit the crime.

Defence attorney Kevin Reddington told jurors during closing arguments, “she loved her children; they were her life,” blaming “the damn medicine and the lousy medical care” Clancy received after giving birth to her third child.

The prosecutors, on the other hand, claim that Clancy knew exactly what she was doing. According to Jennifer Sprague, an assistant district attorney, Clancy was depressed and tired; therefore, made a "choice" to kill her children before committing suicide by throwing herself out of a second-story window. Clancy survived but is paralysed below the waist.

Sprague said: “She didn’t see them in that moment as individual human beings with rights, with dreams, with futures. She left them discarded on the basement floor like broken toys.”

The panel of nine women and three men took about three-and-a-half hours to deliberate on Thursday afternoon before calling it quits for the day. On Friday morning, the jurors asked the first question to Judge William Sullivan, seeking to view the evidence, which included prescription pill bottles and a knife which was shown in court during the trial.

The mother, father, and sister of Clancy were in court while the deliberation was taking place. If Clancy is found guilty of first-degree murder, she faces life in prison. The jurors can also convict Clancy of second-degree murder or manslaughter or even not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility.