Court upholds Michelle Carter involuntary manslaughter conviction

By: Alaina H.

In July of 2014, Conrad Roy parked his truck in a Kmart parking lot in Fairhaven, Massachusetts and committed suicide by poisoning himself with carbon monoxide fumes in his vehicle. It was later revealed that when Roy, who was 18 years old at the time, had second thoughts about going through with it, his girlfriend, Michelle Carter, texted him to “get back in” the carbon monoxide filled truck.

In the 2017 case Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter, Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and received a minimum 15 month sentence. Her defense counsel appealed the ruling, taking the case to the Massachusetts Supreme Court. On January 30th, 2018 the court upheld Carter’s conviction.

The court ruled that, “The evidence against the defendant proved that, by her wanton or reckless conduct, she caused the victim’s death by suicide.” In their ruling, the court cited Carter’s own statement: “[The victim's] death is my fault like honestly I could have stopped him I was on the phone with him and he got out of the [truck] because it was working and he got scared and I f--king told him to get back in.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts claimed that Carter’s conviction was a violation of her free speech rights, however the court stated that, “The crime of involuntary manslaughter proscribes reckless or wanton conduct causing the death of another. The statute makes no reference to restricting or regulating speech, let alone speech of a particular content or viewpoint.” Michelle Carter, 22, may begin her sentence as early as Monday, February 11th.

The recent ruling further reinforces the impact of cyberbullying and over-the-phone conversation, the main medium of communication among young adults today. And further, the growing issue of suicide among teens. For more information about suicide prevention, visit https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/.