GIRLFRIEND CLAIMS FREE SPEECH IN URGED DEATH CASE

Conrad Roy III was in love with his girlfriend, Michelle Carter, who in 2014 encouraged him to kill himself.

Carter, then 17, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for urging her boyfriend to commit suicide. It was her text messages, the judge said, that pushed him over the edge.

But Carter’s attorneys, in an appeal filed last month, argued that the judge’s decision violated her right to free speech and that the texts should not have been used to convict her. Joseph Cataldo said Carter did not call for “imminent lawlessness” because there is no state statute that deems it illegal to encourage suicide.