Lindsay Clancy Could Face 40-Day Evaluation if Jury Accepts Insanity Defense in 3 Child Killings
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Aug 28
Lindsay Clancy Could Face 40-Day Evaluation if Jury Accepts Insanity Defense in 3 Child Killings
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 28
Summary
Jurors who began deliberating Thursday could send Lindsay Clancy to a locked psychiatric unit for a 40-day evaluation if they find her not criminally responsible for killing her three children.
Retired Massachusetts judge Carol Erskine said that evaluation could be followed by a court hearing and an initial six-month civil commitment if doctors find a likelihood of serious harm.
Annual reviews would follow, making the total length impossible to predict: Clancy could be discharged, hospitalized for years, or kept indefinitely only while commitment standards are still met.
Erskine said Clancy’s paralysis after her 2023 suicide attempt likely would not weigh heavily because evaluators would assess danger to herself as well as to others.
The commitment question is only one possible outcome as jurors weigh murder, manslaughter and insanity-defense options in the deaths of Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months.