Judge William Sullivan told Dr Avram Mack to answer defense attorney Kevin Reddington’s questions.

Reddington pressed Dr Mack to whether accepts that postpartum psychosis is a legitimate disease.

The expert cannot seem to give a straight answer, instead he asked Reddington questions.

Sullivan interrupted and told Dr Mack to answer Reddington’s questions or to tell the judge the question needs to be rephrased.

‘Doctor, hold on. Here’s the way this works. You don’t really ask a lot of questions, you answer the questions,’ Sullivan said.

‘I told you before, if you can’t answer a question the way it is framed, just let me know and I’ll tell counsel to frame it in a different way.’

When asked if several symptoms are symptoms of postpartum psychosis – including severe sleep deprivation, hearing voices, rapid mood swings – Mack struggled to give a straight answer.

When pressed about some of Clancy’s symptoms, he acknowledged various symptoms such as:

• Wanted to go back to feeling herself
• Thoughts of harming children
• Thoughts of suicide

Clancy had several symptoms of depression, Mack said, including:

• Inability to laugh
• Anxious and worried
• Trouble sleeping
• So unhappy she was crying on a daily basis
• Thoughts of suicide and self-harm

Reddington pointed out that she ticked off every single symptom of postpartum depression.

When asking him about postpartum psychosis, Mack referred to it as a ‘proposed’ symptom or disease.

Reddington walked up to the screen and raised his voice

‘Are you telling me you don’t believe or buy postpartum psychosis?’ Reddington asked.

‘I’m not saying that at all,’ Mack answered.

Reddington revisited Mack’s testimony on Friday when the doctor said a woman tearing during birth it is called an episiotomy.

The defense lawyer pointed out that he was wrong.

There was another tense moment where neither Reddington or Mack spoke.

Prosecutor Shannan Buckingham objected, saying ‘what’s the question?’

‘I already asked the question. I’m looking at him staring back at me,’ Reddington said, prompting a light chuckle from the public gallery.

Reddington is asking what Dr Mack would classify as the ‘postpartum period.’

He uses the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) to determine if a certain period of time after birth is classed as postpartum.

The guide determines that four weeks after birth is classified as postpartum, far less than many experts believe.

At one point in December 2022 – one month before the killings – Clancy went 48 hours without sleeping. The records show that Clancy said ‘she did not feel the need to sleep.’

Mack testified that a decreased need for sleep is a symptom of mania.

The DSM has been referenced several times over the course of the trial. Reddington has previously highlighted that the DSM does not include postpartum psychosis as a standalone condition.

Reddington pressed Mack about Lindsay Clancy’s bipolar diagnosis.

At the time of the killings, Mack found that Clancy had a major depressive episode and also may have had an anxiety disorder.

Reddington said that at Tewksbury hospital, Clancy was being treated for bipolar disorder and that multiple other experts – state and defense – also found that she had bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder can be a precursor of postpartum depression, Reddington argued.

There was a moment of awkward silence inside the courtroom as Reddington and Dr Mack discussed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), a widely used psychological test that evaluates adult personality traits and mental health conditions.

‘That’s what we’re talking about,’ Reddington said in reference to the MMPI.

Dr Mack and the attorney stared at each other as neither one of them spoke. ᴀssistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham inched up in her chair to object.

‘I don’t know. We’re just looking at each other,’ Reddington said.

Reddington is turning the tables on the state’s witness by asking some of the same questions that the defense experts were asked by prosecutors.

He asked if Dr Mack had confirmatory bias – because the state contacted him as part of their efforts to push back on Clancy’s insanity defense. Mack insisted he did not.

Reddington also questioned him about how much money he makes as an expert witness.

These were avenues that the state tried to argue with Dr Paul Zeizel – the forensic psychiatrist who was present when Clancy called Patrick to tell him a voice told her to kill the children.

Reddington raised his voice as he asked about the moments when he and Dr Kirk Heilbrun interviewed Clancy at Tewksbury Hospital.

He questioned her for four hours with no break. Reddington is pointing out that she is in a wheelchair and is incontinent. Clancy is watching Reddington closely during his questioning but is showing no reaction.

Mack met with and evaluated Clancy on April 10 and 12, 2026, more than three years after the killings.

By contrast, the defense expert Dr Phillip Resnick met with Clancy just four months after the killings.

The two sides’ expert witnesses have given opposing views as to whether Clancy was in a state of postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings – and whether she lacks criminal responsibility.

Dr Resnick testified on Friday that Clancy did have postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings.

Under cross-examination from defense attorney Kevin Reddington, psychiatrist Avram Mack, who is testifying remotely over Zoom, said this would be only the third time that he has testified about criminal responsibility.

Reddington is raising questions about Mack’s credibility and experience as an expert to testify in this case – reeling off cases where his testimony has fallen into disrepute.

In a Pennsylvania case, he was certified only in child and adolescent psychiatry.

In another case, a court found he used an approach that fell below the standard of forensic psychiatry.

Then, in another federal court, he was deemed to be unqualified in the opinion which he gave for reasons including that he had no research whatsoever on the opinions he gave. In that case, Reddington said his testimony was stricken. Mack said that he didn’t believe it was.

This cross-examination is instantly picking up where Friday’s left off: frosty.

SOURCE: https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16075761/lindsay-clancy-trial-case-husband-kids-patrick-live-updates.html