@meghannmcuniff: Jurors can consider whether Lindsay Clancy was impaired because of prescription medication when they decide if she's criminally responsible for killing her three children, 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan, on Jan. 24, 2023, in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Judge William Sullivan in Plymouth County Superior Court instructed jurors about mental impairment and prescription medication this morning when reading instructions about Clancy's charges. They're to consider murder first and whether it was first degree or second degree. They'll consider manslaughter as a lesser included offense. "In deciding whether the defendant intended to kill the deceased and whether she formed that intent with deliberate premeditation, you may consider any credible evidence that the defendant suffered from a mental impairment or was affected by her consumption of prescription drugs." "A defendant may form the required intent and act with deliberate premeditation, even if she suffered from a mental impairment or consumed prescription drugs. But you may consider that evidence." First-degree murder is murder with deliberate premeditation. In Massachusetts, it has three elements: 1) the defendant caused the deaths 2) the defendant either intended to kill, intended to cause grievous bodily harm or intended to do an act which, in the circumstances known to the defendant, a reasonable person would have known created a plain and strong likelihood that death would result. 3) the killing was committed with extreme atrocity and cruelty. Extreme atrocity or cruelty. You can watch the entire 29-minute video of Sullivan reading the instructions on my YouTube channel or Facebook page, where I'll also post video of closing arguments. #law #court #crime

Meghann Cuniff

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Thursday 27 August 2026 16:27:05 GMT