Trial begins for Massachusetts mom who says postpartum issues led her to kill 3 children
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Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a Massachusetts mother who strangled her three children while undergoing medical treatment for psychiatric problems that developed after she gave birth.
The trial of Lindsay Clancy, which could take several weeks, is expected to explore the complicated and rare phenomenon of postpartum psychosis, which afflicts a very small percentage of women who develop delusions and sometimes hallucinations after childbirth.
Five jurors were selected Monday. A total of 18 jurors, including six alternates, will be chosen for the trial.
Clancy's lawyers -- and her husband -- say she was not responsible for her actions. Defense attorney Kevin Reddington doesn't dispute that she killed the children, but plans to raise an insanity defense.
"This whole case is an extreme tragedy," he said.
Prosecutors say the killings were intentional and well planned, not the work of someone who had lost control.
Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of her children Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, when they were killed on Jan. 24, 2023.
Darline Graham says she will run for a full term in Lindsey Graham's Senate seat
COLUMBIA, S.C.-- Sen. Darline Graham said Monday she's running for a full term to replace her late brother Lindsey Graham's Senate seat.
"I've made a decision," Darline Graham told Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity, according to a clip released of an interview set to air later Monday. "I'm in."
The entrance of Darline Graham -- sworn in last week to fulfill the remaining months of her late brother's term, which expires in January -- into the Republican scramble to select a new Senate nominee further complicates an already rushed process following Lindsey Graham 's death earlier this month.
A weeklong filing period opens Tuesday for the special Republican primary, which will be Aug. 11. On Friday, President Donald Trump said that Darline Graham had his "Complete and Total Endorsement" to seek the nomination, adding, "RUN, DARLINE, RUN!"
Last week, Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham to serve the remainder of her brother's term, which ends in January. In his announcement, McMaster made no reference to Darline Graham as a placeholder or symbolic appointment, although a person familiar with McMaster's thinking but unauthorized to speak publicly said the governor, in selecting Darline Graham, had never contemplated that she would run for the seat herself.
Before the emergence of Darline Graham -- and their Oval Office meeting after she was sworn in -- Trump had previously suggested he could back a potential candidacy from Rep. Russell Fry, who said Monday he would officially enter the special primary.
Several other noteworthy politicians, including Rep. Ralph Norman, have already gotten in, and others like Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette have been eyeing a run. Rep. Nancy Mace announced Monday she would not enter the contest.
Darline Graham told Hannity said she had been "praying a lot" about how to navigate her new role.
"It is a tremendous amount of pressure," she said.
"I know I'm a hard worker. I learned that from Lindsey," Darline Graham said. "I feel like I can do it. I feel an inner peace about it. Will it be difficult? Yes."
Funeral services for Lindsey Graham are scheduled to be held next week in Washington and South Carolina. A preliminary report from the medical examiner said he suffered a tear in his aorta.
The millions in Lindsey Graham's campaign account aren't funds that Darline Graham could directly access in a run of her own, according to Bradley A. Smith, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission.
Under federal rules, Lindsey Graham's campaign would be limited to transferring just $2,000 to a potential Darline Graham candidacy. However, Smith said there is no limit on how much it could transfer to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which could -- thanks to a Supreme Court decision last month -- "spend an unlimited amount in coordination with Darline's campaign."
Senators demand ICE answers and body cameras after 2 fatal shootings in Maine and Houston
WASHINGTON -- Dozens of Democratic U.S. senators and the Independent senator from Maine pushed for more details Monday from Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the agency's vetting practices for new agents and how officers conduct vehicle pursuits, even as they demanded that body cameras be swiftly rolled out to all officers.
The demands came in a letter spearheaded by Maine's Independent Sen. Angus King, signed by 38 Democratic senators and sent to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. The demands follow two deadly shootings in which ICE officers shot and killed immigrants in Houston and Maine.
The Associated Press reported last week that the ICE officer in Maine who opened fire and killed a man from Colombia had a history of violent behavior toward family members that was detailed in family court records.
His first ex-wife, Ashley Brouillette, told AP he was physically violent with her, including once throwing boiling water at her while she was holding their child.
His second ex-wife, Lucinda Brouillette, sent a statement over the weekend alleging "a persistent pattern of abuse, intimidation, manipulation, fear, and control."
"Throughout our marriage and in the years that followed, I have feared for a long time that his anger, aggression, and escalating behavior would eventually result in severe, life threatening violence, and I often believed I would be the one on the receiving end of it," she wrote.
Hundreds of pages of family court documents describe their turbulent marriage, and the years after. Lucinda Brouillette told the court he had stalked and harassed her and physically and verbally abused his daughter, according to multiple requests for temporary protection orders. Brouillette tackled his teenage daughter and smashed spaghetti in her hair, and during another outburst, he dragged his daughter around the house as she cried, she said.
"Dave needs counseling or something for his PTSD & depression," she wrote in an application for a temporary protective order on behalf of his teenage daughter which a judge granted in 2021.
In court filings, David Brouillette said that his second ex-wife had slandered him.
Multiple family members told the AP the government should have never given him a gun, badge and the authority to patrol city streets as the Trump administration ramps up its mass deportation agenda.
The senators' letter on Monday listed new measures to increase accountability at the agency, including transparency about whether ICE considers records from family court of domestic violence or abuse when vetting new recruits.
"We remain supportive of removing dangerous convicted criminals from our communities, but this goal can and must be achieved without endangering these very communities in the process. By no stretch could either of the victims in Texas and Maine be characterized as 'the worst of the worst,' making these tragic deaths even more egregious," the senators wrote. "The American people deserve clarity and accountability."
They said ICE should immediately start wearing uniforms or vests that clearly identify them as "ICE" instead of the more generic "POLICE" or "POLICE ICE." Civil rights groups and advocates have often criticized ICE for not wearing uniforms or clear identification on their ballistics vests identifying them as deportation officers.
Senators also demanded to know what changes were being made to how officers conduct traffic stops and vehicle pursuits.
The shootings in Maine and Houston both involved ICE officers shooting at people who were in vehicles at the time. In the wake of the Maine shooting, Homeland Security temporarily stopped officers from conducting vehicle stops except in specific situations. But just a day later, after fierce criticism from some MAGA supporters, President Donald Trump said on social media that traffic stops should continue.
Homeland Security said last week that it was adding new training in crowd-control measures, high-risk vehicle stops, live-fire exercises and medical training, in response to what they called coordinated attacks against their officers and ICE facilities.