A juror in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial is rejecting accusations that the panel approached the case with a predetermined agenda, even as she says the trial gave her a chance to push for change on how the country treats postpartum mental illness.
Paula Devlin, 65, told Fox News Digital that comments she made over the weekend about wanting to “get a conversation started” on women’s mental health prompted claims that jurors were biased going into deliberations. She disputed that characterization on Monday.
“We looked at the evidence, and the evidence had holes in the prosecution’s case,” Devlin said. “In the biggest piece of the whole case, the whole thing was based on mental health. How can you have bias if only women can go through postpartum depression? Only women can go through postpartum psychosis. Only women can deliver a baby. That’s not biased. That’s just a fact.”
Clancy, a 36-year-old former delivery room nurse from Whitman, Massachusetts, is accused of strangling her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — with exercise bands in January 2023 before attempting to take her own life. She survived a fall from a second-story window but was left paralyzed. Devlin said Clancy had sought help for her mental health repeatedly before the killings.
“I truly, truly in my heart believe that if Lindsay had got the help she really needed, those three children would still be here,” Devlin said. “Those five people would still be a family.”
No Witnesses Against Clancy
Devlin pointed to the absence of any witness willing to speak negatively about Clancy, including her ex-husband and the children’s father, Patrick Clancy, as a critical weakness in the prosecution’s case.
“Nobody could find one bad thing to say about this person, and I would bet my house that those prosecutors looked everywhere to find somebody to be derogatory and say derogatory things about Lindsay,” Devlin said. “And nobody could.”
The jury ultimately deadlocked, resulting in a mistrial. Devlin said she remains troubled by the case and the three children at its center.
“Those three little faces and just wondering if we missed something, if we didn’t ask the right questions of each other, if we could have done better — it’s hard not to feel like we failed,” she said. “I mean everybody says we didn’t fail, but it’s hard to not feel that when you’re given a task and you don’t accomplish it.”
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
