Verdict watch in a mother's murder trial. A firefighter's killer wife. Plus, extraditions 101.
Dateline NBC
This Dateline NBC episode covers multiple high-profile criminal cases, focusing on the verdict watch in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, a Massachusetts mother accused of
Key takeaways
- The Lindsay Clancy trial has sparked global conversations about postpartum psychosis, mental health care for women, and societal perceptions of maternal crisis.
- Defense attorneys argue that Clancy was severely medicated and lacked awareness due to psychotic episodes, while prosecutors maintain she acted deliberately despite access to medical help.
Main topics
- Postpartum psychosis and maternal mental health
- The Lindsay Clancy murder trial and jury deliberation
Notable quotes
"She asked for help. She was given a number of different medications by different doctors, and that only made her condition worse." – Defense attorney Kevin Reddington
Conclusion
As the nation awaits the verdict in Lindsay Clancy's trial, the episode
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) Hi, I'm Kate Snow, NBC News anchor and host of the NBC News podcast, The Drink. This month, I'm sitting down with actor, writer, producer, Brendan Hunt. Most of you know him as Coach Beard from Ted Lasso, but there is so much more to his story. We sit down, we talk about all of it, from his bumpy upbringing to his years in improv comedy and how a Hollywood rejection opened the door to co-creating Ted Lasso. It's an open, funny conversation about perseverance, creativity. and the winding road that brought him right here. We hope you'll join us for the drink. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening in to the Dateline Story Meeting. They found the knife and then, you know, thought, okay, he dumped it. Our producers are catching up on breaking crime news. The police work was outstanding. They're deadlocked. Breaking news from the Dateline Story Meeting. Speaker 1 (0:55) Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Lester Holt. It's September 3rd, and here's what's on our docket. In San Diego County, the wife of a California fire captain is sentenced for her murder, and it's not the first time she's been convicted of killing a family member. And it was with a knife. Same scenario. In Dateline Roundup. The latest court filing for Brian Koberger, who pleaded guilty to the murder of four University of Idaho students, but now wants to take it back. And 30 years after hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur was gunned down while driving on the Las Vegas Strip, there is a verdict at the trial of the man accused of orchestrating the murder. As the foreman read the verdict, Tupac's sister grasped hands with the rest of Tupac's family. Speaker 1 (1:44) Plus, a former federal prosecutor gives us the lowdown on the extradition process. How easy is it to bring a defendant back from overseas to face justice? It took three years, which tells you extradition can take a long time. Before all that, we're heading to Massachusetts, where we're on verdict watch at the murder trial of former labor and delivery nurse Lindsay Clancy. And a reminder, this story contains distressing details, including discussion. of suicide. It's the case that started out as a local tragedy, the deaths of three young children, Cora, Callan, and Dawson Clancy, at the hands of their mother, Lindsay, back in January 2023. Three years later, Lindsay's murder trial has ignited conversations around the world about mental health, parenting, and how we treat women in crisis. Speaker 1 (2:40) This week, the world is awaiting the decision of 12 jurors as they deliberate inside a Plymouth County courthouse. Did Lindsay Clancy kill her children as a result of undiagnosed postpartum psychosis, as she says? Or did the mom of three deliberately murder them, as the Commonwealth alleges? Join me now as Dateline correspondent Blaine Alexander, who has been in the courtroom for the final days of this trial. Blaine, it's great to have you here. Thanks so much for joining us. I know you're in your car here, such is the glamorous life of a Dateline correspondent, but we appreciate it. Of course, of course. We are just on verdict watch, Lester. Blaine, you've been at the courthouse inside and talking to people outside. We've watched as the attention on this case has grown day by day. Talk a little bit about what you're seeing. Speaker 1 (3:31) I mean, one thing that we see without fail is the intense media scrum around defense attorney Kevin Reddington. Every time he enters the courthouse, exits the courthouse, I mean, there is this kind of crush of cameras and journalists and just people around him asking him questions. And one thing that we've also seen outside, there have been some people who have come out to show support of Lindsey Clancy, people who have no connection to this case, but have been watching it from afar. I spoke with a family who came from New Hampshire. I spoke with a couple who drove up from Baltimore who just- wanted to be in the courtroom. A couple of people have brought signs. They're wearing pink. One woman brought a sign that said she asked for help. So this really does kind of show that, of course, regardless of what happens inside the courtroom, it really has sparked a lot of dialogue here. Speaker 1 (4:16) Yeah, so let's rewind the clock a little bit here. Before the case made its way into the hands of the jury, they heard closing arguments. Lindsey's defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, was up first. After weeks of technical cross-examination and witness testimony, his message seemed pretty clear. Yeah, Lester, I mean, it has been fascinating to watch these closing arguments from both sides. But Kevin Reddington, the defense attorney, has been pretty clear all along, saying that Lindsey Clancy is a great mother, a devoted mother, in fact. This young lady did nothing wrong in her life. She was a nurse, a daughter, a wife, and a darn good mother. However, she was suffering mentally after the birth of her third child. You know, Reddington says that she asked for help repeatedly, she was given a number of different medications by different doctors, and that that only made her condition worse. Speaker 1 (5:06) And you know, at one point during the closing arguments, Lester, he held up these huge poster boards. One was a photo of the Clancy family from social media. You can see Lindsay, her now ex-husband Patrick, the children smiling together. And then he holds up a second poster board where you see Lindsay lying on a hospital bed after the deaths of her children and after she attempted to die by suicide. And he compared these two striking side-by-side images. It's their family. How does this turn into this? How? Because of the damn medicine and the lousy medical care that she got. And remember, Lester, in all of this, the defense called several expert witnesses to testify about how Lindsay was having a psychotic episode when she killed her children and that she simply didn't know right from wrong when it was happening. Reddington also held up Lindsay's bottles of medication. Speaker 1 (6:10) which were prescribed in the months leading up to the deaths, and Lindsay's journal. What point was he trying to drive home here? Well, I mean, there were visual aids for the jury, right? I mean, he was reminding the jury of all the medications that Lindsay was prescribed. He was trying to strengthen that argument that she was over-medicated in the months before the deaths. One thing that was really important in all of this, Lester, though, was Lindsay's journal. That's because she didn't take the stand in her own defense, but hearing the words that she wrote in her journal really was the closest glimpse that jurors were able to get. Speaker 1 (6:39) get into her mind at the time, into her state of mind. Reddington highlighted several entries where she described feeling anxious, where she writes about having suicidal thoughts. She kind of documents the type of medication she was taking. She writes about being unable to sleep, about having brain fog, and just really chronicling the difficult time that she was having after the birth of her third child. You look at her journalist. She's talking about horrible thoughts, no motivation, deeply depressed as she runs into January. Speaker 1 (7:14) is nothing other than little chicken scratches because her mind was gone. The defense attorney got emotional too, right? Yeah, at one point in there, a juror even cried, Lester. Now, I've got to say, I had a chance to chat with Reddington briefly. It's very clear that he cares deeply about this case. And of course, he cares about what happens to Lindsay. Well, then it was the prosecution's turn. Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague delivered the state's closing. This case is not about our mental health system. or how it treats women, or what's in the DSM-5 and what's not, that's a distraction to get you angry and passionate about an important issue, but an issue that's not on trial here. What's on trial here, what the issue is here, is what Lindsay Clancy did the night of January 24th, 2023, and what her mental state was at the time. She painted Lindsay very differently. Speaker 1 (8:09) That's right, Lester. I mean, she painted Lindsay as having more access to medical care than most people. And essentially, she said that Lindsay was in the driver's seat with her care, but that she did things that acted against those medical providers who were trying to help her. It wasn't the fault of the providers that she wasn't getting better. They were doing the best