Texas Republican Rips Clancy Defense as 'Medicalizing Evil'
Texas Republican Rips Clancy Defense as 'Medicalizing Evil'
The News
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) says he has no sympathy for Lindsay Clancy, rejecting the defense argument that severe mental illness left her not criminally responsible for killing her three children.
"I don't have an ounce of sympathy for Lindsay Clancy," Gill said Friday on Fox News's "The Will Cain Show."
The comments landed days after Clancy's murder trial in Massachusetts ended in a mistrial with jurors deadlocked.
Timeline
Clancy strangles her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — at the family's Massachusetts home. Her attorneys argue she was experiencing postpartum psychosis at the time.
Jurors remain deadlocked for seven days without reaching a unanimous verdict on whether Clancy was criminally responsible for the killings.
Clancy's attorneys make a last-minute attempt to remove the lone holdout juror, accusing that juror of refusing to properly apply the legal standard of reasonable doubt. Trial Judge William Sullivan declines to remove the juror.
Sullivan declares a mistrial over the deadlock.
Gill attacks the defense on Fox News, saying mental illness is no excuse for the killings.
Reactions
"I have an enormous amount of sympathy for the three little innocent kids who were slaughtered," Gill said.
"You don't get licensed to murder your children or anybody else just because you have mental health problems," he added. "We've gotten in a habit of medicalizing evil."
President Trump also weighed in on the mistrial when asked about the case during an executive order signing ceremony in the Oval Office. "It's a shame. It's a horrible tragedy," Trump said. "She did a horrible, horrible thing."
"I guess they're going to go through another trial. It's too bad," Trump concluded.
What's Next
A mistrial leaves the charges unresolved, and Trump said he expects prosecutors to try the case again. No new trial date has been reported.
Gill's remarks put a sitting member of Congress squarely into a fight that has so far played out in a state courtroom — over whether postpartum psychosis can strip a defendant of criminal responsibility.
More
The case has dominated national headlines because of what the jury was asked to decide: not whether Clancy killed her children, but whether severe mental illness meant she could not be held criminally responsible for it.
The seven-day deadlock, and the fight over a single holdout juror, show how far apart the jurors were on that question.
Poll
Should severe mental illness be able to excuse a defendant from criminal responsibility?
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