PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial resumed deliberating for a third day Monday to determine whether to hold the former labor and delivery nurse criminally responsible for killing her three children in 2023 — a case that has drawn attention to maternal mental health after childbirth.
The 12 regular jurors and six alternates began discussing the case Thursday in Plymouth County Superior Court after hearing testimony from more than 70 prosecution witnesses, including her then-husband, and 10 defense witnesses over five weeks.
While Clancy doesn’t deny strangling her children, her lawyer said she did it because she had lost her grip on reality due to postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness that can follow childbirth. In the months before the killings, Clancy sought treatment for her worsening mental health, including a stay in a psychiatric hospital.
Prosecutors said Clancy knew what she was doing. They say she strangled the children because she was depressed and tired of living, and made a conscious choice to kill them before attempting suicide.
The jury could find her guilty of murder or the lesser crime of manslaughter, or it could acquit her if it finds that she wasn't in control of herself due to psychiatric problems. Clancy's sentence could be as severe as life in prison, or she could be released or remain confined in a mental health facility if acquitted.
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.
All three children — Cora, Dawson and Callan Clancy, ages 5, 3 and 8 months — were strangled with exercise bands in the basement of the family's home in coastal Duxbury, Massachusetts, before Clancy tried to kill herself while her husband was getting takeout and at a pharmacy on Jan. 24, 2023.
Clancy, 36, who grew up in Wallingford, Connecticut, has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility. She did not testify during the trial, but jurors heard at length from medical professionals who treated her, as well as from friends and relatives she had told about her mental health problems.
Jurors also heard from medical experts called by prosecutors and the defense who disagreed about her likely state of mind when she killed the children.
The killings happened less than three weeks after Clancy was discharged from a psychiatric hospital. She cut herself before jumping from a second-floor window after strangling the children. She remains paralyzed from the waist down.
Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.
Lindsay Clancy watches jurors as they enter the courtroom to start their second day of deliberations in her murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026 in Plymouth Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Lindsay Clancy watches jurors enter the courtroom for their second day of deliberations as defense attorney Kevin Reddington sits to her right at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., Friday, Aug. 28, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil is rising and U.S. stocks are falling after American forces struck Iranian rocket launchers on the Strait of Hormuz, marking the first military action in a month. Brent crude rose 2.5% Monday and is back above $90 a barrel. The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 282 points or 0.5%. The Nasdaq fell 0.1%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.75%, around the level seen two weeks ago when the Trump administration took the unusual step of announcing it would intervene in the bond market. The yield on the 2-year Treasury eased slightly.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. markets are sliding after American forces struck Iranian rocket launchers in the Strait of Hormuz, the first military action in a month.
The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both declined 0.2% on Monday. Nasdaq futures slipped 0.1%.
Oil prices surged more than 3% after the U.S. strike on Sunday broke a lull in fighting in a war that has lasted more than six months. The Trump administration has announced new economic campaign against Iran, but there is a significant risk of escalation in fighting.
“The Middle East had finally gone quiet enough for oil traders to start sanding some of the war premium out of crude," wrote Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management. "Then Sunday arrived, with a reminder that quiet in the Strait of Hormuz is not the same as peace.”
Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 3.4% to $91.10 per barrel on Monday. U.S. benchmark crude oil was trading 3.6% higher at $86.40 per barrel.
That has created its own form of economic pressures globally, including in the U.S.
The national average for gasoline in August has been above $4 per gallon every day in August for the first time ever, according to the AAA. It has been the most expensive August at the pump on record, outpacing even the enormous supply chain crunch during the COVID-19 pandemic in August 2022.
In equities trading, GameStop surged more than 5% before the market opened after the video game retailer provided a preliminary second-quarter earnings outlook above its year-ago results. Shares of Aon fell slightly as the company announced that it was buying insurance broker USI Insurance Services from private equity firm KKR in a deal valued at $17 billion, including debt.
Later this week, the U.S. reports August jobs data. In July, the U.S. job market stalled unexpectedly as employers cut 23,000 jobs. Labor Department revisions slashed another 103,000 jobs from May and June payrolls.
Wall Street is also bracing for a potential rate hike from the U.S. Federal Reserve following a speech on Friday by Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh about lowering inflation despite possible short-term pain for the economy.
In the bond market, the yield on the two-year Treasury, which closely tracks expectations about Fed moves, jumped to 4.35% from 4.22% just before Warsh's speech at an annual economic symposium held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
That sets up a potential clash with U.S. President Donald Trump, who appointed Warsh and has consistently lobbied for lower rates.
Warsh was adamant again on Friday that he wants to give financial markets fewer clues about what the Fed plans to do with rates for its two jobs of keeping inflation low and the job market strong. But he also said “short-term interest rates are the predominant tool” for the Fed to do its job.
In Europe, Germany’s DAX lost 0.8% to 26,364.99, while the CAC 40 in Paris edged slightly lower, to 8,399.55. Markets in Britain were closed for a bank holiday. Asian markets were mixed.
The U.S. dollar fell to 159.72 Japanese yen from 160.10 yen. It has rebounded after falling for a spell following a rare coordinated intervention by the U.S. Treasury and Japanese regulators in late July.
The euro rose to $1.1602 from $1.1580.
Bitcoin has been on a tear this month, rising about 25%, and is up about 1% Monday to $78,625
Specialists Dilip Patel works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
