BOSTON — As testimony enters its final hours in the Lindsay Clancy trial, jurors are hearing from government expert witnesses about Clancy’s mental state at the time her three children were killed.
Wednesday is likely the final day of testimony before the trial moves to closing arguments.
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TUESDAY TESTIMONY
Prosecution witness Dr. Kirk Heilbrun is the second state expert to testify that Clancy was not psychotic when her children died.
Earlier this week, a forensic psychologist testified that Clancy was instead suffering from bipolar disorder. He said he believes Clancy understood that killing her children was wrong.
The state’s final witness is forensic psychiatrist Dr. Gregory Saathoff, who testified that Clancy gave him significantly different accounts of the night of the killings than she had previously given others.
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Saathoff said Clancy had previously reported that she killed the children shortly after her husband, Patrick Clancy, left the house after hearing a command voice.
But Saathoff testified that Clancy gave him a different timeline, saying the killings began much later. During his interview with Clancy, he said she also described how she killed her children.
“That is when she took Dawson down the steps into her husband’s office to strangle him.”
Saathoff said Clancy then went back upstairs and later brought Cora into a different area of the basement, where he testified she strangled her.
Legal analyst Elyse Hershon said it is not surprising that the state is presenting experts who reach conclusions that differ from the defense experts.
“The experts on both sides agree that she was clearly suffering from something,” Hershon said.
The experts offered several diagnoses, including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis.
Hershon said the central question for jurors is not simply whether Clancy was mentally ill. The question is to what degree her illness affected her ability to understand and appreciate that what she was doing was wrong, and whether she could conform her conduct to the law.
Testimony is expected to continue later this morning, with closing arguments potentially beginning tomorrow.
Hershon said closing arguments will give both sides their final opportunity to emphasize their strongest evidence and make their case to the jury.
For the prosecution, that means arguing that Clancy’s mental illness did not rise to the level required for a finding that
Clancy, of Duxbury, is charged with three counts of murder in the January 2023 deaths of her children, Cora, Dawson, and Callan Clancy.
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