Religious References in Lindsay Clancy Trial Anger Judge and Defense

Religion became a point of contention on Monday in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, a Massachusetts mother charged with murder in the strangling deaths of her three young children.

For the second time since the trial opened last month, a reference to “mortal sin,” a concept that is part of the Catholic faith, incensed the judge, who sternly instructed jurors to disregard any references to it.

Ms. Clancy, 36, who was raised Catholic, does not deny strangling her children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — at her home in Duxbury, Mass., an affluent suburb of Boston, in January 2023. But she has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, citing postpartum psychosis. She faces life in prison without parole if convicted.

Her lawyer has argued that she killed her children because she had been suffering from severe postpartum mental illness and had auditory hallucinations of a voice ordering her to do so.

Prosecutors argued that Ms. Clancy had planned the killings rationally and plotted to get her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, out of the house before she choked their children with exercise bands.

Monday’s proceedings were devoted to rebuttals, which give prosecutors an opportunity to respond to claims made by the defense. Those will continue on Tuesday, and closing arguments will follow, possibly on Wednesday. After that, the jury will deliberate to reach a verdict.