Editor’s note: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.
PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Hundreds of Lindsay Clancy supporters, many wearing pink clothing emblazoned with phrases such as “Believe,” “She Needed Help” and “Peace For Lindsay,” gathered Thursday outside the courthouse where she is on trial in the killings of her three children.
Several of the 300 women, and a few men, said Clancy’s story resonated with them and that they wanted to raise awareness about how the mental health system treats women. Clancy’s lawyer does not dispute that she killed the children, but says she should not be held criminally responsible because she was mentally ill.
The livestreamed trial has sparked massive discussions online and has brought attention to postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington says she had that is linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth. Reddington said she also has bipolar disorder. After strangling her children, Clancy jumped from a second-story window and remains paralyzed from the waist down.
Reddington says Clancy repeatedly sought help: She turned to multiple outpatient providers, tried various drugs they prescribed, called a suicide hotline, went to an emergency room, and even checked herself into a psychiatric hospital.
Prosecutors say the former labor and delivery nurse planned the Jan. 24, 2023, killings and contrived to get her husband out of the house by sending him to pick up medicine for one of their children and dinner for the family. They have also questioned the seriousness of her suicide attempt, and witnesses have testified that Clancy wouldn’t always take prescribed medications.
Supporters stood silently for an hour
Thursday’s rally was the first time during the nearly monthlong trial that supporters have come out in such large numbers.
“Women are being dismissed, neglected and ignored when we speak up,” said April Vincent, a 52-year-old paralegal from Providence, Rhode Island. “We’re scared because nobody takes us seriously.”
The women stood silently for more than an hour ahead of Thursday’s proceedings, where a chaplain called by the defense testified about visiting Clancy in the hospital after the killings.
At the sight of Reddington outside the courthouse, the crowd broke into applause.
Rally organizer Renee Kimball implored the crowd to trust that Reddington “has Lindsay’s fight.”
Toward the end of their rally, supporters formed a circle, said the Lord’s Prayer, held up their arms and formed hearts with their hands. Some held flags from different countries to show that the support for Clancy was global.
Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of Callan, Dawson and Cora Clancy, who ranged from 8 months to 5 years old. Researchers estimate that postpartum psychosis — which is more serious and less common than postpartum depression — afflicts 1 to 2 per 1,000 women after delivery.
Jeanne Zaborski, a 72-year-old retired nurse from Rockland, Massachusetts, said she hopes the case raises awareness about postpartum health. She and many others at the rally said they had been following the trial almost daily.
“It’s very sad,” Zaborski said. “I am a mother. I am a grandmother. I have a sister who had problems after birth and it’s just very sad. I hope Lindsay gets the care she needs and deserves and other women will come together like we did today.”
Chaplain recalls one of the first things Clancy said to her
In court, Sheila Cavanaugh, a chaplain at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, testified that when she first visited Clancy after the killings, she was unconscious. By Jan. 31, 2023, Clancy was conscious and no longer connected to a ventilator, Cavanaugh said, but “her emotional state was very neutral — a flat affect.”
Cavanaugh said she “vividly remembers” one of the first things Clancy said to her.
“She said to me, as I held her hand to comfort her, ‘I’m so glad my children are safe,'” Cavanaugh said. “I replied theologically to Lindsay. I said, ‘Lindsay, your children are safe. They’re safe in heaven with God.'”
“We prayed for them,” said Cavanaugh, who saw Clancy more than 200 times and has visited her at the state mental hospital where she resides.
Cavanaugh said Clancy “alluded to hearing a voice, and the voice, according to Lindsay, told her that if she did not follow the command, neither she nor her children would be safe.”
Prosecutors questioned why Cavanaugh had not documented the disclosure about the voice in notes she made in Clancy’s hospital record.
“I’m not there to evaluate the patient; I’m there to bear witness to their suffering,” Cavanaugh said, noting that she is not medically trained and her notes aren’t meant to be verbatim transcripts of conversations.
Their last visit was right before the trial started. She said Clancy “talks frequently about her children.”
“She loves them deeply,” Cavanaugh said. “She carries immense grief.”
Associated Press journalist Leah Willingham contributed from Boston.
