Outlawing suicide coercion
Lawmakers push bill to clarify that it’s illegal to urge another to take their own life
State Sen. Barry Finegold has renewed his push to criminalize suicide coercion in Massachusetts, and last week was joined by the mother of Conrad Roy as they urged the Joint Committee on the Judiciary to support a bill that would create a new criminal charge for committing such an act.
“This is about sending a message that there is acceptable behavior and there is unacceptable behavior, and if you know someone that has suicidal thoughts and you encourage them to act on those thoughts, that is criminal behavior,” said Finegold, who represents Andover, Dracut, Lawrence and Tewksbury.
“This is something we need on the books,” Finegold said.
Currently, Massachusetts is one of only eight states in the country without a statute explicitly criminalizing coercion of suicide.
Finegold was one several legislators who introduced what became known as “Conrad’s Law” on Beacon Hill in 2019, which would have made intentionally encouraging or enabling a suicide attempt punishable by up to five years in prison.
The bill was named after Conrad Roy, a Massachusetts teen who died by suicide in 2014 following repeated encouragement from his girlfriend, Michelle Carter.
Additionally, its introduction came a mere month after a grand jury indicted Inyoung You on involuntary manslaughter charges for allegedly encouraging her boyfriend, Alexander Urtula, to die by suicide.
Finegold told colleagues at the time that the measure would “save lives” as youth suicide rates continue to increase and as technology exacerbates the effects of social isolation and bullying.
While the bill garnered large amounts of public support at the time, it ultimately stalled in the legislature in the early months of 2020, which Finegold attributed to the emergence of the coronavirus.
“I think it was moving through the proper channels in the Legislature, but March came around and everything became hyperfocused on COVID relief,” Finegold told the Sun in January. “It just got caught up, but I do think that it has a good chance to pass this time around.”
Finegold and state Rep. Natalie Higgins, D-Leominster, reintroduced the bill in late March, and, along with Conrad’s mother, Lynn Roy, told the committee last week that by supporting it they would help close an important gap in Massachusetts laws.
“The only tool in the DA’s toolkit right now is manslaughter, which comes with a sentence of up to 20 years,” Higgins said. “We really wanted to make sure that Massachusetts has a criminal code that’s narrowly tailored and it’s very clear that coerced suicide is something that we want to deter in our communities.”
Lynn Roy, who Finegold said has played a key role in drafting and advocating for the bill, added, “if this law can save one life, one soul, one family from the harshest pain, then we have all succeeded.”