The jury is now deliberating the fate of Lindsay Clancy after four hours of closing arguments.
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.
Clancy, 36, is accused of killing her three young children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — by strangulation at the family's Massachusetts home. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Jurors are now faced with deciding whether she is criminally responsible. The two sides have presented experts with starkly contradicting testimony on whether Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis.
Clancy has admitted to the killings and later attempted to take her own life by jumping out of two-story window of the home but the defense has argued that she was in a severe postpartum psychotic state at the time and cannot be held criminally responsible. Researchers estimate that postpartum psychosis afflicts about 1 to 2 per 1,000 women after childbirth.
Prosecutors, however, claim she was aware of her wrongdoings at the time of the killings and presented expert testimony that told jurors Clancy planned where to kill the children, what to use, and in what order to take their lives.
If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.
