Start with this, you must be crazy to strangle your 3 little children to death. Only an insane person would commit a crime so vile and horrifying. When the Lindsay Clancy case broke, most people I know were outraged by the terrible deed. My mind was made-up as her trial approached that this woman deserved either to serve the rest of her life in prison or, if crazy, in a secure psychiatric institution. From society’s point of view, this baby killer would be punished and put away so as never to threaten her own or anybody else’s children.
As the trial progressed, a closer probe of the triple killings became more complex. As much as we resisted feeling sympathy for this monster defendant how could we not listen as her skilled attorney Kevin Reddington brought on witness after witness to talk about postpartum psychosis and how it might have gripped Clancy as she plotted and perpetrated the dreadful crime?
My daughter Simone, who is also an excellent lawyer, stripped this case of its complexity when she texted me “I think she was crazy and therefore NOT GUILTY.” She then went on colorfully to excoriate the lone juror holdout on the not guilty verdict. To their credit, responsible legal commentators resisted demonizing Clancy. They praised defense attorney Reddington for his dogged attempt to have her found not guilty by reason of insanity and were critical of the Commonwealth for throwing the criminal book at someone arguably in the grips of severe mental illness.
How does anyone know she was severely mentally ill? Have you seen the pictures? No sane human could do that to three beautiful little babies.
However sympathetic we must be to victims of postpartum depression or any severe mental illness, all babies must be protected. It is just too easy to hurt them. Every parent, particularly those without childcare feels frustrated at times, impatient, distracted, angry at their spouses and the world, even dangerous. Sometimes, the babies must be protected against the people who should love and cherish them the most.
Probably unaware of the firestorm this trial would become, Timothy Cruz, the local District Attorney, chose to throw the book at Lindsay Clancy, charging her with first and second-degree murder, and if neither of those stuck, then manslaughter. He was determined to portray her as a villain, not a victim. In defending his harsh approach, Cruz spoke to the crowd and the assembled news media as the deadlocked jury tried to reach consensus on what if anything Lindsay Clancy was guilty of. He said, “All too often criminals are being treated as victims and the real victims are invisible. It is our job to make sure that the victims are not invisible.”
Twenty-five years ago, a Houston Texas woman named Andrea Yates confessed to drowning her five young children in the bathtub. She was found not guilty by reason of insanity. She is still being held in a psychiatric institution. Odds are neither she nor Lindsay Clancy will ever live outside an institution again. Society would be well served to invest more in researching the dark side of parenting and the demons that allow seemingly ordinary and normal people to commit such hideous acts.