Health · MA murder trialJury Decides: Psychosis or Life Without Parole?Aired August 29, 2026 at 3:16 AM UTCWritten September 7, 2026 at 9:22 PM UTCRead the write-upThis storyTranscript · LOADING0:00A mother admits strangling her three children.0:02Now a jury decides if she was criminally responsible.0:05If jurors find she was not responsible, she goes to a psychiatric hospital with no0:09release date.0:10If they find first-degree murder, it's life without parole.0:13The question hangs on one legal standard.0:15On January 24th, 2023, Lindsay Clancy strangled her three children at the family0:21home in Duxbury, Massachusetts.0:23Cora was five, Dawson three, and Callan eight months.0:26She then cut her own wrists and neck and jumped from a second-story window, leaving0:30her paralyzed.0:31Cora and Dawson died that night.0:33Callan died three days later at Boston Children's Hospital.0:36That was 22 days of testimony ago, and now the jury is deciding.0:39The defense says her care failed her.0:41She was prescribed as many as 13 psychiatric medications over four months, with no0:46single provider seeing the whole picture.0:48Under Massachusetts law, a finding of not criminally responsible requires a mental0:52disease or defect that robbed her of substantial capacity to know right from wrong0:56or to follow the law.0:58And the burden is on prosecutors to prove she had that capacity.1:01Both sides agree she was mentally ill and attempted suicide.1:04But the defense says psychosis drove her.1:07Prosecutors say the evidence shows deliberate intent.1:10Prosecutors point to phone searches, mapping, and her sending her husband on1:14errands.1:14Defense experts testified to command hallucinations and a delusion of control.1:18For each child, the jury can choose first-degree murder, second-degree murder,1:22manslaughter, or a verdict that she was not criminally responsible which would send1:26her to a state psychiatric hospital, not free.1:29The manslaughter option was added over prosecution objection.1:32The key figures, the defendant, the judge who allowed the manslaughter option, and1:37the defense experts who testified to her mental state.1:39The jury, nine women and three men, has deliberated about ten hours over two days.1:45On Friday, they asked to see the prescription pill bottles and a knife.1:49They were sent home for the weekend, and deliberations resume Monday at 9 a.m.Explore with HeyDexFollow via RSSThe shortThe short ↗