Key moments from Lindsay Clancy's five-week trial over children's killings

What the report says

Closing arguments are due to begin in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three young children in January 2023 in Duxbury, suburban Boston. The BBC reports that Clancy does not dispute that she caused the deaths, but her lawyers argue she should not be found legally responsible because she was experiencing severe mental illness, including claimed postpartum psychosis. Prosecutors say the killings were deliberate and that she should be convicted of three counts of first-degree murder. A conviction could mean life in prison without parole.

Over five weeks, jurors heard emotional testimony from Clancy’s husband, parents and former mother-in-law about her declining mental health in the weeks before the deaths. The BBC says family members described insomnia, weight loss, paranoia, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and requests for help. Prosecutors also presented expert witnesses who challenged the defence theory, while defence lawyers argued that Clancy had hallucinations and delusions after the birth of her youngest child and had recently sought psychiatric care.

The case has drawn widespread attention, both because of its tragic facts and because it has brought postpartum psychosis into public discussion. According to the BBC, hundreds of supporters have gathered outside the courthouse, while the trial has also prompted online speculation and debate. The judge has already instructed jurors to disregard certain testimony about Catholic beliefs after the defence objected to that line of questioning.