Potential jurors in the Lindsay Clancey case keep leaving the Massachusetts courtroom in tears after having to contemplate the murders of Clanceyâs three young children.
âI just donât know if I can handle being on the jury,â the emotional man, who had previously been selected to serve on the jury, told Plymouth County Superior Court Judge William Sullivan Wednesday.
The man then became one of more than 250 potential deciders who have been excused from the arduous jury selection process since it began Monday.
Ten women and seven men have been selected so far to decide the wheelchair-bound 35-year-oldâs fate over the fatal strangling of her three small children.
The judge plans to pick 18 people to serve in the jury pool â 12 of whom will be selected for the jury when itâs time to render a verdict.
Clanceyâs defense has argued the former nurse killed the children while she was in the throes of a postpartum psychotic state that was made worse by her doctors.
While another jury candidate wept while leaving the courtroom Wednesday afternoon, Clancy was seen frowning while waiting for the jury to be picked.
Clancy, clad in a green blouse with lace sleeves, appeared to glare intensely at potential jurors and occasionally look over at her defense attorney from her counsel table and, later, the witness stand.
The Wednesday hearing came to a close without seating the final juror by around 4 p.m., and was expected to continue again starting Thursday morning.
Prospective jurors have been required to answer questions about whether they could remain impartial during the trial, whether they are close with anyone who has suffered from mental health or postpartum issues and whether they are open-minded about the defenseâs insanity argument, according to local news outlet WCVB 5.
Theyâre also required to disclose whether they have any relationship to Clancey or any witnesses who are expected to testify.
Each is then called to speak with attorneys from both the defense and the state, as well as the judge, the outlet reported.
The highly anticipated trial in Plymouth, Mass., will hinge on whether jurors believe the killer mom â paralyzed from a suicide attempt â was suffering from postpartum psychosis worsened by a cocktail of anti-psychotic medication when she committed the unthinkable crime in January 2023, experts previously told The Post.
âThe whole case is just her state of mind and whether she was aware of right from wrong and literally if [she was aware] what she was doing was going to end up killing her kids,â said former prosecutor Mark Bederow.