I like watching criminal trials carried live, and I’m not alone. This type of coverage can offer educational value for young and old and give a bird’s-eye view of our justice system.
New Hampshire’s own Pamela Smart had a lot to do with captivating the national public’s attention for high-profile cases. Smart’s 1991 murder trial became the first one in the country to be broadcast live on television from start to finish, gavel to gavel.
Next was the O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1995, raking in huge television/radio ratings; more sensational criminal trials would follow.
Today, many of these trials can be found on YouTube and other digital streaming platforms, where multi-millions tune in.
Right now, the story of Lindsay Clancy has gripped many viewers from around the globe, and I’m watching, too. Clancy, 36, is on trial for the 2023 murders of her children.
It’s a heartbreaking case of the former labor and delivery nurse who strangled to death Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan in the basement of their home in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Clancy has admitted to committing the three homicides, but should a mother suffering from a severe mental illness be held criminally responsible for killing her children?
That will be for the jury to decide; it’s no easy task.
The defense is arguing that Clancy suffered from postpartum psychosis, in part exacerbated by a heavy cocktail of psychiatric drugs prescribed through telehealth appointments without the provider ever meeting her in person.
But the prosecution is challenging that, saying that the murders were premeditated and that Clancy understood what she was doing regardless of her mental impairment and deserves life in prison.
Watching a criminal trial online is one thing, but add the massive presence of social media, and much of it can turn vicious, dumb, juvenile or worse. Unfortunately, some view these criminal trials as sport or entertainment, spread lies about facts in the case or hurt the victims and their families by mocking them online.
Some legal scholars don’t think carrying high-profile criminal trials on television or online is good for the American justice system, saying wall-to-wall camera coverage can taint the fairness of a proceeding.
Public “noise” can also ruin juries. For instance, Bravo TV’s “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum Lisa Rinna has found herself in hot water after her recent TikTok post about the Lindsay Clancy trial. Rinna says she and her female therapist agree that the father, Patrick Clancy, murdered his children, not Lindsay Clancy, because “women don’t strangle.”
“[My therapist] looks at me and she goes, ‘He did it.’ I was like, ‘Wow, yeah.” Rinna’s entitled to her opinion, and there’s internet buzz that Patrick Clancy is the real killer. Others wonder why police never investigated the husband following the murders. No probable cause; that’s just my opinion.
What I do believe is that postpartum problems are real, including postpartum psychosis, a highly complex but treatable condition. It’s nothing to laugh at, and yet the stigma of not being the “perfect” mother remains. It’s hard for some women to reach out for help; they feel shame or embarrassment.
There’s a special place in Rochester, New Hampshire, called “Hope on Haven Hill.” A team of compassionate, professional women is doing great work for mothers. This includes a residential program for pregnant or newly postpartum women. For more information, visit www.HopeOnHavenHill.org or its sister website, www.NHMomHub.org. In Nashua, people can call the Harbor Care Cynthia Day Family Center at 603-881-4848.
“You don’t have to walk this alone,” says a quote posted on the NHMomHub.org website.
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