The Prosecution Told Lindsay Clancy's Jury Why She Killed Her Children

The prosecution's rebuttal case in the Lindsay Clancy trial took an unexpected turn when its second expert witness handed the jury a motive rooted in love instead of premeditation.
Kirk Heilbrun, a forensic psychologist who examined Clancy at Tewksbury Hospital over three days, testified that her account of hearing a commanding voice on the night of the killings is clinically inconsistent. The voice appeared for eighteen minutes and never returned. She reported no accompanying delusions and made no attempt to resist it. He called the psychosis theory "a convenient way of lessening your own culpability."
His alternative: Clancy was suicidal and took her children with her because she couldn't stand the idea of them suffering without her. He used the forensic term "altruistic filicide" — killing your children out of love. The first words Clancy spoke to Patrick when he walked through the door were about her own death, not the voice.
Then a prosecution witness mentioned Catholic doctrine a