The
defense
rested
its
case
Friday
in
the
Lindsay
Clancy
murder
trial
after
eliciting
several
days
of
testimony
about
her
mental
state
before
and
after
she
strangled
her
three
young
children.
Prosecutors
then
began
calling
rebuttal
witnesses
in
the
trial,
which
is
likely
entering
its
final
days.
Closing
arguments
are
expected
next
week.
Clancy,
a
former
labor
and
delivery
nurse,
has
pleaded
not
guilty
to
murder
charges
in
the
deaths
of
her
children
Callan,
Dawson,
and
Cora
Clancy,
who
ranged
from
8
months
to
5
years
old.
They
were
found
in
the
basement
of
the
family’s
home
in
coastal
Duxbury,
Massachusetts.
Clancy
jumped
from
a
second-story
window
after
strangling
the
children
and
remains
paralyzed
from
the
waist
down.
Prosecutors
argue
that
Clancy,
36,
planned
the
killings.
Clancy’s
lawyer,
Kevin
Reddington,
hasn’t
disputed
that
she
killed
the
children
but
says
she
should
not
be
held
criminally
responsible
because
she
had
postpartum
psychosis,
a
rare
mental
illness
linked
to
the
stress,
sleep
deprivation,
and
hormonal
changes
that
follow
childbirth.
He
sought
to
bolster
that
defense
by
having
the
jury
hear
from
more
of
Clancy’s
family
members,
who
detailed
her
worsening
mental
health
and
attempts
to
fix
it
through
psychiatric
treatment
and
medications
before
the
January
2023
killings.
The
jury
also
heard
from
a
psychologist
and
hospital
chaplain
who
met
with
Clancy
after
the
killings.
The
Defense’s
Final
Witness
Also
Testified
at
the
Trial
of
Texas
Mom
Andrea
Yates
For
his
final
witness
on
Friday,
Reddington
called
Phillip
Resnick,
MD,
a
forensic
psychiatrist
and
expert
in
filicide,
or
the
killing
of
a
child
by
a
parent.
Resnick
testified
that
Clancy
was
“clearly
psychotic”
on
the
day
she
killed
her
children
and
was
not
in
control
of
her
actions.
“It
was
almost
like
she
was
a
puppet
and
someone
else
was
pulling
the
strings,”
said
Resnick,
who
testified
for
the
defense
in
the
2006
trial
of
Andrea
Yates,
the
Texas
mother
who
drowned
her
five
children
in
2001.
Resnick
said
he
spent
hours
interviewing
Clancy
4
months
after
the
killings
and
believed
she
tended
to
minimize
rather
than
exaggerate
her
symptoms.
He
said
she
suffered
from
severe
depression,
showed
evidence
consistent
with
bipolar
disorder,
and
reported
hearing
a
voice
commanding
her
to
kill
her
children.
Resnick
described
several
categories
of
filicide,
including
killings
involving
abuse.
Others
involve
psychosis
or
what
he
calls
“altruistic”
filicide
—
a
killing
committed
“out
of
love
rather
than
hostility.”
He
said
he
found
Clancy’s
case
involved
both
of
the
latter
categories,
but
he
didn’t
find
evidence
of
abuse.
Resnick
said
Clancy
had
a
delusional
belief
that
if
social
services
took
the
children
or
if
she
killed
herself,
her
children
would
suffer
without
her,
and
believed
that
they
would
be
better
off
dying
with
her
and
going
to
heaven.
“She
believed
that
she
was
doing
what
was
right
for
her
children,”
he
said.
On
cross-examination,
prosecutor
Jennifer
Sprague
challenged
that
characterization.
“So,
it’s
better
to
kill
them
than
have
them
taken
away?”
Sprague
asked.
The
judge
struck
the
question.
Prosecutors
Say
Clancy
Wasn’t
Suffering
From
Psychosis
or
Bipolar
Disorder
Prosecutors
argue
that
Clancy
contrived
to
get
her
husband
out
of
the
house
the
day
of
the
killings.
They
have
attempted
to
show
that
while
she
was
getting
treatment
for
anxiety,
insomnia,
and
depression,
she
wasn’t
suffering
from
psychosis
or
bipolar
disorder.
After
the
defense
rested,
prosecutors
called
forensic
psychiatrist
Avram
Mack,
MD,
as
a
rebuttal
witness.
Mack
agreed
that
Clancy
suffered
from
a
major
depressive
episode
but
said
he
found
no
evidence
of
mania
or
hypomania
to
support
a
bipolar
diagnosis
—
or
of
psychosis
—
leading
up
to
the
killings.
Mack
said
Clancy
recounted
the
killings
to
him,
saying
she
heard
a
loud
male
voice
telling
her
to
kill
the
children
so
she
could
kill
herself.
She
recalled
strangling
the
children
and
saying
“go
to
God”
as
she
did
so,
he
told
jurors.
Mack
said
Clancy
was
experiencing
severe
mental
illness
when
she
killed
her
children
but
that
it
was
a
continuation
of
the
depression
she
had
experienced
for
months
in
which
she
was
able
to
control
impulses
and
distinguish
right
from
wrong.
He
also
said,
“There’s
no
reason
that
psychosis
in
and
of
itself
inhibits
a
person’s
ability
to
know
right
from
wrong.”
If
you
or
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you
know
needs
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the
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suicide
and
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lifeline
in
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