The case of Michelle Carter has a new twist. You may remember her as the 17-year-old girl who encouraged her boyfriend Conrad Roy III over text to take his own life. She is now a 21-year-old woman serving time for her part in it this, but Carter’s attorneys are appealing her involuntary manslaughter conviction from 2017 on grounds that the evidence was one-sided. Carter was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
According to PEOPLE, Carter’s lawyers intend to argue that the prosecution “cherry-picked” texts that made Carter look heartless and did not mention ones that made her sound supportive and empathetic.
Messages included “I’m not giving up on you, it’s just every time I try to help you don’t listen,” “You aren’t gonna get better on your own … you need professional help” and “we can go [get help] together so we will be there for each other.”
The prosecution did, indeed, use texts as evidence that Carter encouraged Roy to take his own life. They said the two sent more than 1,000 texts in the week before Roy’s suicide. Among those texts were “You always say you’re gonna do it, but you never do. I just want to make sure tonight is the real thing,” “You just have to do it,” and “It’s painless and quick.” Samantha Boardman, a friend, said Carter told her she heard Roy succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning over the phone, MassLive reported.
According to Boardman, Carter also said that she told Roy II to “fucking get back in [the truck]” when he said he was “scared.” But the lawyers are disputing that. Carter contends that the “get back in” text was sent to Boardman months later and that the prosecution presented it as if she said it to Roy.
Carter’s attorneys are also arguing that the “words alone” shouldn’t have been enough to convict her since she was “absent” when the suicide took place.
The appeal was apparently strong enough for the Court, since it has agreed to take up the case.
[Image via Law&Crime Network]
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