What does Christianity require of us when a mother kills her three young children? Justice seems like the obvious answer. But what does justice mean when there is no question that something unimaginably evil happened, yet there is profound doubt about whether the person who committed it possessed the mind necessary to be morally responsible for it?I have wrestled with those questions since I began following the Lindsay Clancy case.
Apparently, I am not alone.For seven days, 12 Massachusetts jurors wrestled with essentially the same question. Eleven of them reportedly concluded that Clancy should be found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. One disagreed. The resulting mistrial leaves Clancy facing the possibility of another trial for the 2023 deaths of her three young children: Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months. Here is where I have landed.
If the evidence establishes that postpartum psychosis deprived Lindsay Clancy of the capacity for criminal responsibility, then I do not believe justice requires we send her to prison. I believe justice requires we treat her. That is not the same thing as setting her free. I am a lawyer, a former prosecutor, a Christian and the father of four children. Each part of me sees this case a little differently.
The father sees three children who should still be alive. The former prosecutor believes deeply in accountability and punishment. But the Christian keeps coming back to a harder question: What is godly justice? I spent the first four years of my legal career prosecuting sexually violent predator cases for the State of Missouri. During that time, I tried and convicted more than 30 sexually violent predators.
I have looked evil in the eye, and I have locked it behind bars.