AP Top Story Wire
  • Updated

A Massachusetts mother who strangled her three young children and tried to kill herself sobbed in court as jurors listened to her husband's anguished 911 call from that day. The trial focuses on Lindsay Clancy’s mental state, with her lawyers arguing she had postpregnancy psychosis. Prosecutors say she acted intentionally and is criminally responsible for the deaths in January 2023. Patrick Clancy also gave a second day of testimony Wednesday about his family's last ordinary hours and his wife’s deteriorating mental health. He has said in interviews that he views her as ill, rather than evil. If convicted, she faces life in prison. If found not guilty, she could be committed to a mental health facility.

A key question in a Massachusetts murder trial is whether postpartum psychosis drove a mother to kill her three children. Postpartum psychosis is a rare and dangerous condition estimated to afflict 1 to 2 per 1,000 women after delivery. Medical experts describe it as a mental health emergency affecting someone’s sense of reality. Symptoms may include hallucinations, delusions, paranoia or other behavior changes. A woman may also have mood changes, such as mania or depression, disorganized thinking or behavior, insomnia, irritability or agitation. The condition is treatable, but experts say it is best to get treatment early.

AP Top Story Wire
  • Updated

A Massachusetts woman is on trial in a case where her lawyers argue that postpartum psychosis was the reason she killed her three children, aged 5 and younger. Opening statements in Lindsay Clancy's trial began Monday. Jurors are expected to hear evidence for weeks, including dueling views about her culpability and mental state. Clancy has pleaded not guilty and her attorney has laid out an insanity defense. Prosecutors argue she strangled Cora, Dawson, and Callan in well-planned murders in January 2023. At the time, she had been getting psychiatric care for about four months.

AP Wire
  • Updated

Text messages between singer D4vd and Celeste Rivas Hernandez shown in court indicate she had gotten pregnant and had an abortion more than a year before she was killed. The testimony came Friday during a hearing to determine if the singer, whose legal name is David Burke, should go on trial in the girl's killing. Prosecutors spent part of the hearing detailing the nature of the relationship between Burke and Rivas Hernandez, describing graphic, sexual photos of the two of them. Earlier, the court heard testimony about the girl's autopsy.

  • Updated

Jury selection has begun in the murder trial of a Massachusetts woman who is expected to argue that postpartum issues were the reason she killed her three children. Lindsay Clancy has pleaded not guilty in the three counts of murder in the deaths of her children, 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan, on Jan. 24, 2023. Five jurors were selected Monday. A total of 18 jurors, including six alternates, will be chosen for the trial. Prosecutors argue Clancy used an exercise bands to strangle her three children. But Clancy's attorney, Kevin Reddington, plans to lay out an insanity defense

AP Wire
  • Updated

Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance have welcomed their fourth child. Their son Alec Neel Vance is the first child born to a sitting vice president in more than 150 years. The Vances announced the birth Sunday on social media. Alec joins older siblings Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel. The Republican vice president’s growing family is in keeping with his passionate advocacy for Americans to have more children. The vice president, who’s 41, has been accompanied on overseas trips by Usha Vance, 40, and their children, with the kids often pajama-clad as they board Air Force Two for the overnight flights.

AP Wire
  • Updated

Wildfire smoke, which is increasing in the Northern Hemisphere as the climate warms, attacks nearly every system in the body. And medical studies show that it is killing tens of thousands of people a year. Within hours, ambulance calls increase. And then emergency room visits soar for breathing problems, especially asthma. People start having heart issues. ER visits for mental health concerns also jump. People have trouble focusing. Pregnant women give birth prematurely and to underweight babies. Men’s sperm is weakened. That's because smoke as an irritant triggers the immune system. And smoke has thousands of chemicals in it, many of them toxins.

AP Wire
  • Updated

Voters in one of the most conservative U.S. states will decide whether to roll back the state's abortion ban. Idaho officials informed supporters Monday that the measure would be added to the ballot. That makes it the fourth state where voters will directly decide abortion policy in November. In Missouri, a proposal would undo an amendment adopted two years ago that allowed abortion. In Nevada and Virginia, measures before voters would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitutions. Both places already allow abortion through at least 24 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion rights groups have prevailed in most ballot measure votes over the last four years.