Lindsay Clancy Strangled 3 Children, With Postpartum Psychosis Cited in Defense
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 25
Lindsay Clancy Strangled 3 Children, With Postpartum Psychosis Cited in Defense
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 25
Summary
Three children ages 5, 3 and 8 months were strangled in 2023 after Lindsay Clancy allegedly attacked them while her husband was out picking up dinner, then jumped from a second-story window.
A forensic psychologist was told that a voice ordered Clancy to do it, and her lawyer has argued she was suffering from postpartum psychosis — a condition linked to hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, suicide and infanticide risk.
The legal fight centers on insanity: jurors would have to decide whether her illness left her unable to understand the killings were wrong or unable to stop herself.
More than 100 women were found in California prisons for killing their children in a 2020 KQED investigation, with a majority serving life sentences and about 40% of cases involving a child under 1.