Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial began her closing argument on Thursday by emphasizing that the case isn’t about the “mental health system or how it treats women.”
“That’s a distraction to get you angry and passionate about an important issue, but an issue that’s not on trial here,” she says.
The case, Sprague said, is about whether Clancy could recognize what was wrong with her actions and conform her actions to the law. In Clancy’s case, she had more support and resources than most have when navigating the American health care system.
“This wasn’t a woman suffering from a lack of care, a lack of resources,” she said. “She had an abundance of health, an abundance of care. She had all of that and more.”
Clancy has been charged with first-degree murder for the killings of her three young children, 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan, in their family home in Massachusetts on the night of Jan. 24, 2023.
Clancy's defense claims she was not in her right mind and therefore should not be held criminally responsible, while prosecutors argued she intentionally sent her then-husband to run errands so she could strangle each child with exercise bands in their basement.
Sprague ended her closing argument by describing how horrific and cruel the killings were.
“She left them discarded on the basement floor like broken toys because she was done playing the game,” Sprague said. “You know to a moral certainty she is guilty.”
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Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial began her closing argument on Thursday by emphasizing that the case isn’t about the “mental health system or how it treats women.”
“That’s a distraction to get you angry and passionate about an important issue, but an issue that’s not on trial here,” she says.
The case, Sprague said, is about whether Clancy could recognize what was wrong with her actions and conform her actions to the law. In Clancy’s case, she had more support and resources than most have when navigating the American health care system.
“This wasn’t a woman suffering from a lack of care, a lack of resources,” she said. “She had an abundance of health, an abundance of care. She had all of that and more.”
Clancy has been charged with first-degree murder for the killings of her three young children, 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan, in their family home in Massachusetts on the night of Jan. 24, 2023.
Clancy's defense claims she was not in her right mind and therefore should not be held criminally responsible, while prosecutors argued she intentionally sent her then-husband to run errands so she could strangle each child with exercise bands in their basement.
Sprague ended her closing argument by describing how horrific and cruel the killings were.
“She left them discarded on the basement floor like broken toys because she was done playing the game,” Sprague said. “You know to a moral certainty she is guilty.”
-------------------------------------
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