Clancy faces years of confinement, no matter what comes next

September 6, 2026 — 4:30pm

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Plymouth: Whatever happens next in the murder case against Lindsay Clancy after a Massachusetts jury failed on Friday (US time) to reach a verdict, it is certain that she will remain institutionalised for many months, if not years.

Even if she is not ultimately convicted, medical and legal experts have said that her future will be one of confinement.

Clancy does not deny strangling her three children with exercise bands in 2023. Her symptoms of postpartum psychosis in the months before she killed them were at the centre of her defence. Her lawyers argued that she was not legally responsible for the deaths.

That view apparently convinced most of the jury members in the month-long trial. Notes from the jury suggested that 11 of the 12 jurors seemed ready to acquit Clancy. But one lone juror declined to join the rest, even after apparently expressing doubts about her guilt.

A similar debate has captivated and divided the American public for weeks. At its core is a fundamental disagreement about how Clancy should spend the rest of her life. Should she be labelled a criminal and imprisoned? Or should she be regarded as a victim of a sort, who should be provided treatment? In neither case would she go free. But to what end should her confinement serve?

Judge declares mistrial in Lindsay Clancy murder case that gripped America

Michelle Oberman, a law professor at Santa Clara University who studies legal issues around pregnancy and motherhood, said it felt like a “watershed moment” that most jurors seemed inclined to support the idea that Clancy should be helped, not punished.

Eleven of 12 jurors apparently agreed, she said, that “postpartum mental illness is real, and that postpartum psychosis can cause someone to do something they’d never........

© The Sydney Morning Herald