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Is Lindsay Clancy guilty of premeditated murder? Trial to be fought over 'mental state' at time of crime

The 32-year-old is facing multiple charges after using exercise bands to strangle her three children while her husband was out picking up food

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DUXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS: Lindsay Clancy is facing a murder trial after being accused of brutally strangling her three young children to death. A lawyer has said she could be found guilty of premeditated murder if prosecutors focus on crucial evidence.

The 32-year-old is facing multiple charges after using exercise bands to strangle the children while her husband Patrick Clancy was out picking up food. Now, an expert, Duncan Levin, who works as a defense attorney, has given his predictions about what the trial will be fought over. He believes that both the prosecution and the defense will try to get inside the mind of the suspect if the case goes to trial. 

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Mental health struggles

"This case is not going to center around whether she committed the murders or not," Levin told The Sun. "That's something that is not going to be an issue in this case. What is going to be an issue is her mental state and whether she was legally responsible." Clancy's husband discovered their children Cora, five, Dawson, three, and seven-month-old baby Callan fatally wounded inside their Duxbury home on January 24. Emergency responders rushed to the scene and took the mother to a hospital after she allegedly jumped out of a window in a failed suicide attempt. She remains in recovery as prosecutors build their case against her.

Clancy has been hit with two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of strangulation and suffocation, and three counts of assault with a deadly weapon following the disturbing incident. While she stands accused of killing her infant child, she isn't facing charges related to his death. At her arraignment last week, her team pleaded not guilty on her behalf citing mental health issues that they say wrecked the mother's postnatal mind. However, despite claims of serious mental health struggles, prosecutors are arguing that Clancy was lucid and that the murders were premeditated based on key evidence.

Were the murders premeditated?

Under Massachusetts law, the burden of proof lies with the state, meaning prosecuting attorneys will have to point to evidence that could establish that Clancy was of sound and stable mind when she ended the lives of her children – rather than the defense being pressured to prove she was suffering from a bout of psychosis. On January 24, Clancy first took her daughter Cora to a doctor's appointment. Prosecutors say staff at the medical office reported that she was acting normally. She subsequently returned home and played with both Cora and Dawson in the snow, with the trio building a snowman and sharing photos of it with family. Furthermore, the mother also looked up a nearby restaurant to order takeout and asked Patrick to pick up the food.

According to Levin, this errand could have possibly been orchestrated "in an effort to lure him away for a longer period of time so that she had more time to commit these murders." Clancy is also said to have had normal phone conversations with doctors and her husband before the murders. Levin said prosecutors could claim that "she was thinking clearly, speaking clearly, and was of calm, cool, and collected mind" in their arguments against the mother. "The prosecution is going to have to prove that even if she was mentally ill, she still knew that what she was doing was wrong or illegal," Levin explained. "They will use [that evidence] to show that she was not suffering from psychosis at the time of the murders," he added.