Michelle Carter, the Massachusetts woman who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself, is fighting her conviction in the state’s Supreme Court. Oral arguments are taking place on Thursday. Watch live, with in-studio analysis on the Law&Crime Network in the player above.
Carter was sentenced to two and a half years behind bars after her 2017 trial for the death of Conrad Roy III. Roy killed himself via carbon monoxide poisoning in a car. He had texted Carter that he wasn’t going to go through with it, but she responded by encouraging to keep going. During her trial, prosecutors provided text messages between the two of them to show Carter’s role in Roy’s suicide.
Carter was 17 at the time of Roy’s death, and the judge sentenced her to two and a half years in a house of corrections. The judge said 15 months were to be considered a committed sentence, with the rest to be suspended until August 1, 2022, as well as probation. The sentence was put on hold pending Carter’s appeal, which is now before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.
[Image via ABC screengrab]