HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE DRESSED IN PINK GATHERED OUTSIDE THE COURTHOUSE FOR LINDSAY CLANCY… THE REASON BEHIND IT ALL TAKES THE STORY IN A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT DIRECTION
HUNDREDS of people dressed in pink traveled near and far to gather silently outside of the courthouse where Lindsay Clancy faces three murder charges after strangling her kids in January 2023.
Men, women and children stood outside the Plymouth County Superior Court in Massachusetts on Thursday for Lindsay wanting “to be still and be quiet and just kind of be her calm,” the rally organizer exclusively told The U.S. Sun.
Lindsay Clancy (pictured August 20) has pleaded not guilty to murdering her three children in January 2023, and instead seeks an insanity defenseCredit: Reuters
Hundreds of people gathered outside of the Plymouth Superior Court on August 20 in a rally to support LindsayCredit: Getty
The Stand in Peace For Lindsay rally organizer Renee Kimball spoke exclusively with The U.S. Sun about how she organized the eventCredit: The U.S. Sun
Lindsay’s three children Cora, Callan and Dawson were found in the basement of their home with exercise bands around their necksCredit: Instagram/heardwithlove
Lindsay has not denied killing her children, and instead, her defense seeks to argue she was not criminally responsible for murder because she was suffering from undiagnosed postpartum psychosis.
Five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson, and eight-month-old Callan were found in the basement of their Duxbury, Massachusetts, home on January 24, 2023, by their father Patrick Clancy.
While Patrick was briefly out of the house running errands, Lindsay strangled her kids before cutting herself and jumping from her second-story bedroom window in an attempt to end her life.
Lindsay claims she heard a male voice tell her, “This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself,” and has since been held at a state mental health facility under constant one-on-one monitoring.
Lindsay Clancy’s psychologist gives insight into how she feels about three kids
In the months before she killed her kids, Lindsay met with several healthcare providers, was prescribed 13 different psychiatric medications, was hospitalized for suicidal ideation, and called suicide hotlines that turned her away.
Renee Kimball from Maine had been watching the trial from the beginning and told The U.S. Sun, “I think we all remember the moment that Lindsay was in shambles in the courtroom after some difficult questions from the prosecution during testimony and that stuck with me.
“I felt like she must feel so alone,” Kimball said, adding that she struggled with her own mental health issues after she had her son at 19 years old.
Seeing Lindsay sobbing in the courtroom, Kimball decided in the middle of the night to organize an event to bring people together who are in support of Lindsay.
“So I created the event right then and put it out into the world, and by four o’clock the next morning it had gone global,” she said.
When she arrived on Thursday morning around 6:30am, she was shocked to see dozens of women lined up an hour before the support rally was scheduled to begin.
“Over the next hour, the crowd just grew enormously to hundreds of people, men and women. I think 25% of our crowd was men in pink, so that was awesome to see.
“And it was beautiful. Women were sharing their stories with each other, embracing for hugs. It was the most peaceful gathering of that scale that I’ve ever seen.”
The first hour was spent with attendees mingling and bonding over their mental health struggles and putting ribbons in their hair to honor Lindsay’s daughter Cora, but excitement began when defense attorney Kevin Reddington arrived.
“When Mr. Reddington showed up, there were some cheers from the crowd. But after that, it was very peaceful, very silent,” Kimball said.
“He drove in his car with his window down. He nodded at the crowd, and everyone just cheered for him.
“I think it’s been clear from day one that Mr. Reddington really cares about Lindsay. He really understands the portion of the mental health issues that she was struggling with.
“And it appears that he is angry at the mental health systems for failing her.”
Supporters dressed in pink seen outside of Plymouth Superior Court on August 20Credit: Getty
Renee Kimball pictured at the rally outside of the courthouse on August 20Credit: April Vincent
Free iced coffee was available for attendeesCredit: April Vincent
A Stand in Peace for Lindsay sticker made by a guest at the eventCredit: Renee Kimball
After Lindsay’s white-haired, black-belt defense attorney with tattoos hidden under his suit arrived, supporters gathered in silence.
“We stood facing the courthouse the way we set out to. And then shortly thereafter, everyone gathered in a circle, and we said a prayer,” she recalled, adding that they made heart shapes with their hands before standing in a moment of silence.
“Mental health can be chaotic and loud, and that’s what Lindsay has been suffering with. So we wanted to just be there to be her calm,” she explained.
“I think the general message is that many of them have been failed by the mental health care systems.
“People need to know the words postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. I think that a lot of us have not even heard that term.
“We all know – those of us that have had mental health struggles – that it doesn’t need an invite. We don’t ask for it. It just shows up uninvited. And it overstays its welcome, and it intrudes on every part of our daily lives.
“Then to watch Lindsay go through what she’s going through, knowing that she never asked for this, it’s actually devastating.”
April Vincent, a 52-year-old paralegal and mother of two from East Providence, Rhode Island, traveled over an hour to attend the rally after she heard about it on TikTok.
“It instantly attracted me because I knew that this was something I could attend because it was so close to me, but also because I saw myself in Lindsay.
“I, myself, had postpartum depression with both my pregnancies … I was married to a man who was not very good to me, and I had been afraid to speak out loud the feelings I was having about myself and being scared about how I was going to be able to take care of this tiny human I created with no help.
“I was believing that anything I did would be my fault. I had no one to rally around me.
“I am heartbroken that here we are 25 years later, and we are still having people afraid to speak up, and I am even more horrified to see how critically broken the system is after hearing Lindsay being ignored, dismissed, cast aside when she was very much begging for help.
“I want our voices to be heard so that the talk of change starts and the planning and implementing of that change begins.
Aimee Breault of Acushnet, Massachusetts seen livestreaming the event as she wears a “Stand in Peace for Lindsay” shirtCredit: AP
Mandie Reibold carries Michelle Martinez, her one-year-old daughter at the rallyCredit: AP
Supporters gathered in a circle holding a moment of silence and saying a prayerCredit: April Vincent
The flyer Kimball made to spread awareness of the eventCredit: Renee Kimball
“It is long overdue, and while we can’t change what’s happened, I am hopeful we can prevent it from happening to other mothers and their babies moving forward.”
She told The U.S. Sun she spoke with several attendees, including a therapist who said she has seen “firsthand how difficult the system makes it for medical professionals to do their jobs adequately.”
Vincent also spoke with a woman who flew in from Florida, and while that supporter didn’t experience postpartum mental health struggles, “here she was full of empathy and compassion and felt in her heart that this was something she needed to stand up and support.”
A man who lost his sister to her battle with postpartum depression ten years ago also joined the rally, telling Vincent, “he and his family have been touched by something they never expected to be a part of.”
Kimball said the overall message she hopes to send with the rally is that “It should not take tragedy for people to pay attention to mental health, and it shouldn’t cost lives.
“And by that I mean the lives of Cora, Dawson and Callan – and nearly Lindsay – and many others throughout the world for psychiatric doctors to hear their patients.
“Lindsay begged for help. In the testimony, I heard that she begged for help. I don’t know much more that she could have said, and she was failed.
“And a lot of people are asking, what about the children? But they are the forefront of this message because nobody wants another family to face what their family is facing now.
“If mental health was approached differently and there was some systemic change, then a lot of tragedies that have happened may not have happened.”
Kimball created spreadsheets to keep track of the nationwide and global support of people who rallied at the same time as those in Massachusetts.
The spreadsheets revealed the former labor and delivery nurse had people supporting her in Canada, Australia, Ireland, Greece, Germany, Korea, Peru, Portugal and more.
“And it sounds like they have the same crisis for obtaining help for their mental health issues. And people were sharing their stories of postpartum depression or anxiety, but also in general, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, the effects of longstanding trauma,” Kimball said.
“They were just sharing their stories of their issues and why this resonates with them with each other, with me.
“There was the most precious young woman that walked up to me in tears, and I hugged her, and I wish I could find her because she was just amazing. She impacted me that day.
“She thanked me, and she said that I think her exact words were, ‘You’ll never know how much this means to me.’
“It’s been overwhelming and quite emotional to have women all over the world kind of trusting me with their stories.”
Closing arguments are expected to come in Lindsay’s murder trial on Monday or Tuesday.
Reddington spoke with reporters outside of the courthouse on Thursday, saying he was thankful for the supporters who showed up.
He rested his case on Friday after calling members of Lindsay’s family to the stand, including her mother, sister and former mother-in-law, and expert witnesses like the psychologist who met with Lindsay after the killings.
The prosecution rested its case on Monday but brought a few rebuttal witnesses on Friday to detail more about Lindsay’s mental health.
Jurors will be tasked with determining if the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Lindsay was criminally responsible at the time of the killings.
Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham said in her opening statements that Lindsay was “not a woman in the throes of psychosis,” and instead “gave herself the time and privacy needed to commit the murders.”
“They were strangled, deliberately and meticulously, killed by this defendant. One by one, she grabbed exercise bands around each one of the kids’ necks and pulled until their little bodies were limp and lifeless,” she argued.
“She’s living in her own hell. She knows what happened to those kids,” Reddington said in his opening statements.
“This is a woman that did not get the medication, did not get the medical treatment that she so deserved.
“This was a woman who was suffering from psychosis at the time that she went down to that basement. She had no motive; she loved her children.”
If Lindsay is found guilty, she faces life in prison without parole, but if the jurors find her not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility, she will be held at a state mental health facility.
SOURCE: THE SUN
https://www.the-sun.com/news/16877470/lindsay-clancy-support-rally-courthouse-organizer-murder-trial/
