Rhiow
4d ago
I don't doubt Resnick can evaluate whether a woman sitting in front of him was suffering from post-partum psychosis or not, but I'm sceptical he can tell if a woman whose had months to start building an insanity plea legal defense was suffering from post-partum psychosis or just post-partum depression several months ago, based on her testimony alone. I'm not sure anyone has that ability, that's practically mind reading.
If he'd seen Clancy before she killed her children or right afterwards I'd put more weight on his evaluation. As far as I understand the medical professionals that did evaluate her at the time made no indication that she heard voices.
Rhiow
5d ago
Hmm, I read they could only consider involuntary manslaughter, not voluntary, though that was in a Free Press article, not from the video of the trial itself.
Rhiow
5d ago
The justice system also sentences criminals in order to dissuade others from commiting the same crime in the future.
Widespread reporting on school shootings have spawned copycat shootings over the years, and coverage on suicides can persuade other people that are contemplating suicide to act on it. What kind of message would a not guilty verdict in the Clancy case send to other women who are struggling with post-partum depression and intrusive thoughts? It's not really your fault if you listen to the voices in your head and harm your kids?
Rhiow
5d ago
Yeah, I wonder why the judge didn't allow the jury to consider convicting her of voluntary manslaughter, which would have made the most sense in my opinion.
Rhiow
5d ago
I assume the mental institution has IVs to combat malnutrition.
With suicide off the table I'm actually not surprised she's mounting a legal defense. A not guilty by reason of insanity would mean the death of her children was "not her fault". A guilty verdict would mean she killed them, plain and simple. I'm not surprised she finds the first option easier to live with, especially since her ex-husband and her parents seem to believe it too.
Rhiow
5d ago
She "gains" the ability to die knowing no one will be able to take care of her children better than she did, and they will never love someone else more than her.
I do think she's mad, you don't kill your kids and try to kill yourself because you're mentally well, but being unwell enough to think your kids are better off dead isn't the same as not knowing that killing them is illegal, which is what the insanity defense is meant to cover.
Rhiow
5d ago
To be fair to Clancy in this, she is paralyzed from the waist down and in a mental facility with 24/7 supervision, I'm not sure she can commit suicide.
Rhiow
10d ago
The Young Wizards series never grabbed me, but I loved the spinoff set in the same world, The Book of Night with Moon.
I just listened to the podcast, and they skipped over the point I was making on whether or not it's possible to determine if Clancy really had command hallucinations at the time of the crime. There's actually a comment on the video noting that Dr. Resnick's court opinion seems to contradict his own teachings in other places on determining if a report of command hallucination is malingering or not.
Dr. Fu is probably correct that it's irrelevant for determining guilt vs innocent due to how Massachusetts law is written, so I guess I'm mostly taking issue with the legal criteria, and the psychiatrists that helped to put it in place.
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