‘She needed help’: Supporters rally for US woman accused of murdering her three children
Supporters of a US woman on trial for killing her three children say she was mentally ill and desperately needed help.
Hundreds of supporters wearing pink gathered outside the courthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts yesterday where Lindsay Clancy has pleaded not guilty to the murders of her three children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months in January 2023.
Lindsay Clancy speaks with her lawyer Kevin Reddington during proceedings in her murder trial. AP Photo/Josh Reynolds
Prosecutors allege the 36-year-old planned the killings, sending her husband out of the house on an errand before strangling her children and jumping from a second-storey window, which left her paralysed from the waist down.
They have questioned the seriousness of the suicide attempt and witnesses have testified she wouldn’t always take her medication.
Clancy’s lawyer Kevin Reddington says the former labour and delivery nurse was suffering postpartum psychosis, and should not be held criminally responsible.
He claims she repeatedly sought help, tried drugs prescribed to her, rang a suicide hotline, presented to an emergency room and checked herself into a psychiatric hospital.
What is postpartum psychosis?
In Australia, postpartum or postnatal psychosis is treated as a psychiatric emergency.
The symptoms can include severe anxiety, insomnia, delusions, paranoia, hallucinations and thoughts or plans of harming themselves or their baby.
It’s more serious and less common than postnatal depression and anxiety, affecting about 1-2 women in every 1000, according to PANDA.
Women with bipolar disorder - which Clancy also has, according to her lawyer - are considered at a greater risk of relapsing with psychotic symptoms after pregnancy.
Supporters of Lindsay Clancy outside the courthouse where her murder trial is taking place. AP Photo/Josh Reynolds
The nearly month-long trial, which is being livestreamed, has sparked massive discussions online.
Thursday’s rally outside the courthouse, where women gathered wearing shirts emblazoned with emblazoned with phrases such as “Believe”, “She Needed Help” and “Peace For Lindsay”, was the first time during the trial that supporters have come out in such large numbers.
“Women are being dismissed, neglected and ignored when we speak up,” April Vincent, a 52-year-old paralegal from Providence, Rhode Island told Associated Press.
“We’re scared because nobody takes us seriously.”
Jeanne Zaborski, a 72-year-old retired nurse from Rockland, Massachusetts, told Associated Press 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.”
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.
Hospital chaplain recalls Clancy’s ‘immense grief’
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 January 31, 2023, Clancy was conscious and no longer connected to a ventilator, Cavanaugh said, but “her emotional state was very neutral — a flat affect.”
Kara Hurston holds her daughter Prinn, 4, as they join a demonstration in support of Lindsay Clancy outside Plymouth Superior Court AP Photo/Josh Reynolds
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.”
The trial is expected to hear closing arguments as early as next week.
Reported with Associated Press
If you or someone you know is in need of support contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue. In the event of an emergency dial Triple Zero (000).
For help with pregnancy or new parenthood, call the PANDA Helpline on 1300 726 306 or visit panda.org.au
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