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Lindsay Clancy watches jurors enter the courtroom during her murder trial on Friday, in Plymouth, Mass.Greg Derr/The Canadian Press
A judge on Friday declared a mistrial after the jury deadlocked in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy for the killing of her three young children at her home in 2023.
The nearly six-week-long televised trial revived long-simmering debates about how postpartum mental health in women is treated in the U.S., and how the country’s legal system addresses cases when mothers kill their children. Here’s what to know about the trial so far.
What is a mistrial?
A mistrial is declared when a case is determined to be invalid before a final verdict. The case is cancelled, and it’s not a win or a loss for the prosecutor or the defence.
In this case, a mistrial was declared due to a hung jury – where the jury that couldn’t come to the needed unanimous decision after a lengthy deliberation period. The Massachusetts jury deliberated for seven days on whether Ms. Clancy was criminally responsible for the strangulation of her three children, amid conflicting testimony about her post-pregnancy mental health.
If the case were to continue in front of the courts, prosecutors would have to decide whether to try again with a new jury. If they do, the jury selection process would begin again and a new trial would be scheduled.
What is Ms. Clancy accused of?
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Lindsay Clancy looks toward reporters in the courtroom, on Aug. 20.Josh Reynolds/The Associated Press
In January, 2023, Ms. Clancy strangled her three children at their home south of Boston. After the killings, her husband found her badly injured in the yard, where she landed after jumping from a second-story window. She was left paralyzed from the waist down.
Ms. Clancy doesn’t deny strangling her children, but says postpartum psychosis led to her actions.
Testimony from family members, including Ms. Clancy’s now ex-husband, Patrick, detailed how she had struggled with her mental health in the preceding months following the birth of her third child, repeatedly seeking treatment from health care providers who prescribed her a myriad of drugs.
Prosecutors did not dispute that Ms. Clancy had been dealing with mental health issues. But they argued that she was able to appreciate the wrongfulness of killing her children and intentionally chose to do so anyway.
They presented testimony from a psychologist who, after examining Ms. Clancy, concluded that she had planned to commit suicide and chose to kill her children because “she was convinced that they would suffer without her.”
A conviction could mean life in prison for Ms. Clancy, while an acquittal might lead to confinement in a mental health facility.
What is postpartum psychosis?
Postpartum psychosis usually happens within several days of giving birth but can occur up to six weeks afterwards. It’s estimated to afflict only 1 to 2 per 1,000 women after delivery. Experts at the Cleveland Clinic describe it as a mental health emergency affecting someone’s sense of reality.
Symptoms may include hallucinations, delusions, paranoia or other behaviour changes. In a journal article on the subject in 2023, researchers at the Medical University of Lublin in Poland said about half of people with postpartum psychosis have a previous history of psychiatric problems and the most common risk factor associated with the condition is bipolar affective disorder, which causes extreme mood swings.
A woman may also have mood changes, such as mania or depression, disorganized thinking or behaviour, insomnia, irritability or agitation. Though most people with postpartum psychosis don’t harm their children, mothers with severe cases may try to do so, and also may try to harm themselves.
It’s separate from postpartum depression, which is a mood disorder that can also be dangerous but is much more common. Baby blues is a lot milder and affects about 8 in 10 new moms shortly after delivery.
With baby blues, crying jags and feelings of sadness aren’t enough to interfere with normal life and moms should still be able to care for themselves and their babies.
Moms with the postpartum psychosis need in-patient mental health care, which can include involuntary hospitalization. Treatments include medications or electroconvulsive therapy, a procedure done under anesthesia in which small electric currents pass through the brain, intentionally causing a brief seizure.
Has a case like this ever been tried before?
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Andrea Yates (centre) stands with her attorneys George Parnham (left) and Wendell Odom as the verdict in her murder retrial is read in Houston, in 2006. A jury found Yates not guilty by reason of insanity in the drownings of her five children, ages 6 months to 7 years, in the bathtub of their Houston home.POOL/X80003
The case of Andrea Yates from 2002 in Houston. Like Ms. Clancy, Ms. Yates admitted to killing her five children in 2001. Her attorneys said she suffered from postpartum psychosis and believed killing her children would save them from hell.
Her initial murder conviction and life in prison sentence was overturned, and in a 2006 retrial she was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a state mental hospital.
With reports from Reuters and the Associated Press