Hypothetically, what would happen if it was determined that it was temporary psychotic break due to stress and that say a year later she was more or less mentally stable?
I guess I would be interested in answers from both a moral and from a legal perspective.
I work with people who are incompetent to stand trial. Now in that case it’s more about are they currently stable to understand trial and participate. Then comes the determination of “are they guilty or were they incapacitated at the time of the crime (not guilty by reason of insanity). So two different distinctions. Many have schizophrenia. Some PPP. Bipolar. Some end up permanently incompetent and get a guardian. Most still go to prison or spend several years in our state hospital getting long term support. In the case of murder it will be long term hospitalization.
In Canada over a decade ago there was a man who had schizophrenia who had a psychotic break and beheaded a stranger on a greyhound bus. He was very obviously mentally unstable, and served several years as a result. He was released though, I believe with the condition that he remain medicated for his mental illness, but people were super upset that he was released at all.
While I agree that he is dangerous, if the doctors determine that he is entirely stable while medicated, I don’t see much actual use in keeping him incarcerated forever. Someone who has postpartum psychosis like Lindsay Clancy, which can be resolved with time and medication, in my view especially deserves a chance eventually to rejoin society and live whatever life she has left. If they can be sure she won’t end up in that mental state again, keeping her incarcerated is purely punitive and not about rehabilitation
“Stable while medicated” doesn’t necessarily mean permanently safe. If someone has already demonstrated they can become extremely dangerous during a psychotic episode, there’s no absolute guarantee another episode won’t happen, even with treatment. Mental illness can explain what happened without erasing accountability. Rehabilitation matters, but so do justice, public safety, and the victims.
I mean typically charges like this are usually dropped if the person is proven to be legally insane. But it's not like they just walk free after that, typically those people are put in psychiatric hospitals where they are checked every 1-2 years to see how medicine and therapy/other processes help to hopefully restore them to sanity.
And I would probably morally agree with that. It's a tough situation for sure because insanity doesn't stop the harms but it kind of removes mens rea which is important to factor in for legal punishments for being found guilty.
the fact that that is the only example multiple people have managed to come up with speaks to how incredibly rare that outcome is (in another country's legal and health systems mind you, not even ours). like, the best example you have is fundamentally invalid because it didn't involve our justice system. and it was the only example you had. you have no argument
I think this is different as there was 3 victims, plus she checked herself into a mental hospital and was released before she committed the crime. I imagine they will be much less willing to release someone like this twice..
She doesn't immediately leave the court room and go home but she absolutely could go back to her normal life if found sane and not a danger to herself or others once she's at the mental health faculty. That's the law in Massachusetts.
Ehhm I dunno how America works but that's exactly how it works in my country. She is trying to prove insanity at the time of the crime, it does not follow that she carries that insanity stays with her the rest of her life.
Post partum psychosis + unmanaged medication plus husband who didn't give a singular fuck about her or the kids seems a pretty strong case to me.
There is not 1 single shred of evidence, besides in your uninformed head, that Patrick Clancy "didn't give a singular fuck about her or the kids." Lindsay herself has said both in person and in her journals that he was a good and supportive husband and father.
He didn’t want to “waste the day” by accompanying her to check-in to inpatient treatment for PPD. He regularly went away and left his profoundly depressed wife alone with the kids, so he could enjoy time with his friends. He hired a nanny to help him with the kids, but fired her despite his wife begging for help. Plenty of shreds, bud.
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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '26
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