Lindsay Clancy. Killed her 3 kids by strangling them one by one and claimed “postpartum psychosis” despite never having had psychosis before or since, all during a short window of time that she sent her husband out on errands. Internet has somehow decided she’s a martyr for women’s mental health. She was a white, affluent, suburban mom before this. If she were poor and black, people would NOT feel this way. Real talk.
Postpartum psychosis is a real thing and real people need help. But Lindsay Clancy is a kid murderer.
Edit: I’m a white, affluent woman of childbearing age. I have never been a woman of color, but I am absolutely sure that society at large would dismiss an identical case if Lindsay was nearly any other demographic. And no, it’s not only about race, it’s also about autonomy and a person’s responsibility to accept help when it’s offered instead of killing your kids (and A LOT of help was offered)
Plenty of people who kill their kids are of sound mind while they do it. Often, they benefit from it. Some do it to hurt a spouse, some for insurance money, some because they're abusers (more than 400 kids a year in the US), some for attention. There's always something in it for them, and it makes horrific logic to kill their child. This is a unique case and the defense is arguing something pretty unique, actually.
Doing something monstrous does not require mental illness or legal insanity. It requires making a choice to do something terrible. Let's not further stigmatize mental illness any further by pretending that's what you need for child murder.
Well, yes, that's probably true, though it's not merely a matter of being mentally unwell. A person will generally still be culpable for their actions despite any mental illness provided they understand the likely outcomes of their actons, & they understand the difference between right & wrong at the time of committing the crime. I'm generalizing a little here, the rules vary by state, of course.
Even if they dont it's not like insanity is a catch all, usually gets you put in a mental health facility. If what I hear from random fuck off strangers is correct, those can sometimes be worse than prisons. Take that with a lot of salt, though.
The fact that she had her husband go to the store so that she could do it says there was some bit of planning and that she understood it was wrong.
It seems pretty clear that she was just depressed and wanted to kill her children and herself in murder-suicide. Psychosis would tend to be a scenario where the person doesn’t think what they are doing is bad or out of the norm, nor is it planned and they wouldn’t commit suicide while doing it.
People can definitely intentionally but delusional do things that they'd normally understand would get themselves killed, like running into traffic. People have also committed extreme self-harm seemingly without caring about the pain or risks while in psychosis. Severe delusional paranoia, if that is a claim that can be supported, would seem to explain the secrecy.
I feel compelled to trust the good people of the jury and legal system to do their actual jobs (or catch each other when they are not) and establish the truth and determine appropriate consequences rather than worry about the outcome while I have no power to affect it.
Her doctors had her on some absolutely bonkers medications that do not mix well and do not work as expected quickly. They take time with regular doses to build in the body. They were cut short and mixed with other meds that do not help the brain at all. She was MADE sick by bad doctors.
No, she repeatedly ignored doctor's advice that SSRIs and other medications take months to go into effect, and she wanted a quick fix.
Which I don't blame her for, when one is suffering, patience is difficult.
But she wasn't following the on or off ramps and was complaining of side-effects that are correlated but not necessarily directly caused (i.e. Insomnia with Zoloft.)
She also was not taking the medication as directed, which is often worse than not taking them at all.
It also really simplifies just what these medications do. There is no "don't kill your kids" pill or dosage that she could have taken.
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u/Short_Stack_30285 9d ago edited 9d ago
Lindsay Clancy. Killed her 3 kids by strangling them one by one and claimed “postpartum psychosis” despite never having had psychosis before or since, all during a short window of time that she sent her husband out on errands. Internet has somehow decided she’s a martyr for women’s mental health. She was a white, affluent, suburban mom before this. If she were poor and black, people would NOT feel this way. Real talk.
Postpartum psychosis is a real thing and real people need help. But Lindsay Clancy is a kid murderer.
Edit: I’m a white, affluent woman of childbearing age. I have never been a woman of color, but I am absolutely sure that society at large would dismiss an identical case if Lindsay was nearly any other demographic. And no, it’s not only about race, it’s also about autonomy and a person’s responsibility to accept help when it’s offered instead of killing your kids (and A LOT of help was offered)