Woman ruled responsible for her boyfriend’s suicide
BOSTON — A young woman who as a teenager encouraged her boyfriend through dozens of text messages to kill himself is responsible for his suicide, Massachusetts’ highest court ruled Wednesday in upholding her involuntary manslaughter conviction.
The Supreme Judicial Court said in a unanimous decision in the novel case that Michelle Carter’s actions caused Conrad Roy III to die in a truck filled with toxic gas in a deserted parking lot nearly five years ago.
“After she convinced him to get back into the carbon monoxide filled truck, she did absolutely nothing to help him: she did not call for help or tell him to get out of the truck as she listened to him choke and die,” Justice Scott Kafker wrote.
Carter’s lawyers said in an email they are disappointed in the ruling and will consider appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, among other legal options. Carter, now 22, was sentenced to 15 months in jail, but has remained free while she pursues her appeals.
“Today’s decision stretches the law to assign blame for a tragedy that was not a crime. It has very troubling implications for free speech, due process, and the exercise of prosecutorial discretion — that should concern us all,” said Attorney Daniel Marx, who argued the case before the high court.
A spokesman for the Bristol County District Attorney’s office said it will file a motion in the coming days asking the trial court to impose Carter’s jail sentence now that the state high court has ruled.
“This case is a tragedy for all of the people impacted by this case,” District Attorney Thomas Quinn III said in a statement. “However, as the court found in two separate decisions, her conduct was wanton and reckless, and caused the death of Conrad Roy,” he said.
Carter and Roy both lived in Massachusetts but met in Florida in 2012 while both were on vacation with their families. Their relationship consisted mainly of texting and other electronic communications. Both teens struggled with depression. Carter had also been treated for anorexia, and Roy had made earlier suicide attempts.