For prosecutors, convicting Clancy meant defending that system, at every turn. Her health providers did everything right, they argued. It was Clancy who failed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis defendant had a means and access to mental health that most people don\u2019t, and she chose to deal with her mental health issues in the worst way,\u201d Buckingham said. \u201cShe chose to manipulate her providers, seek out the quick and easy fix when she was feeling depressed and anxious, and when she didn\u2019t get what she expected, she chose an alternate route.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a risky argument to make to anybody who has even a glancing familiarity with the mental health system in this country. Legions of Americans know firsthand how difficult it is to find adequate psychiatric help, especially in an emergency. We all know how often people in dire need spend days in hallways in overcrowded emergency rooms, unable to find a spot in a facility designed to treat mental illness. Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague tried to thread the needle by acknowledging that in her closing statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis case is not about our mental health system or how it treats women,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s a distraction to get you angry and passionate about an important issue. But an issue that\u2019s not on trial here.\u201d<\/p>\n
She then went on to list the many ways in which Clancy was to blame for her inability to get a handle on her mental health struggles. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the system . . . that caused her to strangle her kids,\u201d Sprague said. \u201cIn fact, she had more access to treatment and care and support than a lot of people do.\u201d Clancy had good health insurance, maternity leave, a loving family who wanted to help her, a nanny, and preschool for her two older children. But she was impatient, noncompliant, and withheld information from her providers, Sprague said, lying when they asked her if she was having disturbing thoughts. She was worried her kids would be taken away from her. <\/p>\n
The prosecutor argued that was proof that Clancy knew the difference between right and wrong \u2014 that she was not incapacitated by mental illness. Sprague was betting that jurors would not see through the broad stereotypes of mental illness that prosecutors presented in the courtroom. <\/p>\n
But a person in the grips of severe mental illness, including psychosis, can behave rationally in some ways, experts say<\/a>. They may be unable to control themselves during an act of violence, but still understand they will get in trouble for it. <\/p>\n The fact that Clancy was functioning in some moments does not preclude her having an auditory hallucination in which she was ordered to kill the children she loved by a male voice she could not resist, as she and her attorney have claimed. We\u2019ve seen this<\/a> in other cases<\/a>: A mother can care well for her children right up until she does the unthinkable to them. She can obey traffic signals and worry about their health and build a snowman with them just hours before she takes their lives, as Clancy did. Her illness can also make her genuinely believe killing them is the only way to save them.<\/p>\n She can take them on a visit to a museum, as Clancy and her husband, Patrick, did two weeks before that awful January evening. But to Sprague, the video from that visit is proof that Clancy was criminally responsible for their deaths. The prosecutor argued that if she could control herself at the museum, she could control her actions on the evening she killed the children. <\/p>\n \u201cIf you watched that video and . . . we asked you, \u2018Pick out the woman who is depressed. Pick out the woman who wants to kill herself. Pick out the woman who\u2019s about to kill her kids,\u2019 you couldn\u2019t,\u201d Sprague told jurors. \u201cShe\u2019s completely calm. All her behaviors are typical and normal because she\u2019s able to control her behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n The complexities and apparent contradictions of mental illness may be difficult for ordinary people to get their heads around. But every single mother on this planet knows what it\u2019s like to act normal and try to show your kids a good time, even when you\u2019re in excruciating pain on the inside. Just ask us.<\/p>\n In that video from the science museum, prosecutors see a controlling, manipulative woman. They see a woman who faked psychosis to get away with killing the three children who, they say, stood in the way of Clancy\u2019s plan to take her own life \u2014 a plan they suggest she was not strong enough to complete. <\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to see the logic in their argument, but maybe the jury will buy it.<\/p>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ZGLUXOA35DNC2RZLEQVCUUA4ZE.jpg\")
In the courtroom, State Trooper Joshua McKelligan pointed to the Clancy family in a video showing their visit the Museum of Science.Josh Reynolds\/Pool<\/p>\n