US
Court Affirms Ruling That Involuntary Manslaughter By Text Message Is Possible
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The Massachusetts Supreme Court upheld a decision Wednesday finding a woman guilty of involuntary manslaughter after she convinced her boyfriend to commit suicide.
The evidence presented in the case is “sufficient to support the judge’s finding of proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed involuntary manslaughter as a youthful offender,” the court ruled Wednesday, according to WCVB.
The decision upheld an earlier ruling by a Massachusetts judge giving 22-year-old Michelle Carter 15 months of jail time for involuntary manslaughter after her boyfriend committed suicide at her urging. Judge Lawrence Moniz ruled in June that Carter’s texts to her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III, urging him to kill himself ultimately caused him to take his own life.
Roy was found in his pickup truck, dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in July 2014.
Judge Moniz gave Carter 15 months of jail time in August. Moniz noted that Carter was three weeks away from adulthood at the time of the crime, but that she should still be considered a “child before the court.”
Wednesday’s decision comes after the court heard the case in October following an appeal from Carter’s attorneys, WCVB reported.
“We are disappointed. We respect but fully disagree with the court’s decision. We will weigh all our legal options, including further appeal,” Carter’s attorney, Joseph Cataldo, said, according to WCVB.
Cataldo said they are considering appealing the case to The U.S. Supreme Court.
Carter will now serve 15 months of a 2.5 year jail sentence.
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