Lindsay Clancy, A Great Stage Of Fools, And Three Dead Children
Two Fridays ago , the Lindsay Clancy trial ended in a mistrial after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict, ending — at least for now — one of the most miserable and upsetting cycles of discourse and speculation in recent memory. In 2023, Clancy murdered her three children and then attempted to kill herself. That attempt left her paralyzed and confined to a mental hospital. Clancy was charged with first-degree murder, and the jury had to decide whether or not she was responsible for her children’s deaths. There was no dispute over whether Clancy had carried out the act. The question was whether it was deliberate, as the prosecution claimed, or if, as the defense contended, she was in the grip of psychosis. In the end, 11 jurors voted for acquittal, but a single holdout juror resulted in a mistrial. As a central question, though, the contention at the heart of the case seemed not so much legal as philosophical. How far back into the darkness of yo...