‘Nobody would be supporting her if she were Black’: Nancy Mace goes after the women gathered outside the Clancy trial

The trial of Lindsay Clancy has reached a boiling point, and not just over the legal arguments playing out inside the courtroom. Representative Nancy Mace has injected a volatile new element into the case, claiming the crowds of supporters gathered outside the Plymouth Superior Court are driven by a racial double standard.

During an interview with TMZ, Mace dismissed the supporters as a “pink mob.” She went further, saying that if Clancy were a Black woman, “nobody would be supporting her.”

Clancy, a 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse, doesn’t dispute killing her three children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months, at their Duxbury home in January 2023, before jumping from a window in an attempted suicide that left her paralyzed. As she does not dispute the killings, the trial centers on whether she can be held criminally responsible for them.

The defense and prosecution can’t even agree on whether Clancy was psychotic

The defense has built its case around Clancy suffering postpartum psychosis and undiagnosed bipolar disorder at the time, pointing to hallucinations and an inability to understand that what she was doing was wrong. However, prosecutors argue she was not experiencing psychosis when she killed her children and instead acted with intent, citing her behavior before and after.

Hundreds of supporters have gathered outside the courthouse, many wearing pink and carrying signs reading “Believe,” “She Needed Help,” and “Peace For Lindsay.” Many are women who have faced their own struggles with postpartum psychosis, and they see the trial as a systemic healthcare failure rather than a standard criminal case.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington has brought boxes of letters of support from around the world into the courtroom, showing how far the case has resonated. As a retired nurse was charged after allegedly filming jurors, the judge had to remind the courtroom about the rules against contacting or photographing them.

Mace rejects the idea that healthcare failure is behind the trial, arguing mental illness shouldn’t absolve someone of responsibility for taking their children’s lives. She called the political left “inherently racist” during the same interview.

She also pointed to the case of Dimone Fleming, a 26-year-old Black mother from the Bronx. Fleming killed her two eleven-month-old sons in 2022, Daishawn Fleming and Octavius Canada. Mace claimed Fleming “got away with it” and asked why no crowds rallied for her.

The legal reality is more nuanced than a simple acquittal. A judge found Fleming not criminally responsible by reason of mental disease or defect on August 28, though she remains in custody for psychiatric evaluation and could be involuntarily committed to a secure facility. Clancy would likely face the same outcome if the jury reaches a similar conclusion.

There is also a key difference between the two cases. In Fleming’s case, experts for both the prosecution and the defense agreed she was experiencing severe psychosis. However, in Clancy’s trial, the experts fundamentally disagree, which is a primary reason the jury has struggled to reach a verdict.

It’s important to note that while Mace’s claim about the supporters’ motivations is her own interpretation, there is documented evidence of racial inequality in healthcare. Research across seven U.S. jurisdictions shows Black women are significantly less likely to receive mental health care for postpartum symptoms than white women. However, that disparity doesn’t prove Mace’s claim about this specific group.

The jury has spent seven days in deliberations and remains deadlocked, with reports of an 11-1 split the judge has declined to break by removing the dissenting juror. As deliberations stall, a mistrial is possible, and prosecutors would then need to decide whether to bring Clancy to trial again.