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U.S. NEWS Friday 24 January 2020
Michelle Carter, of texting

suicide case, freed from jail

By PHILIP MARCELO ticipated in jail programs, her jail sentence.
Associated Press which under state law al- "After she convinced him
BOSTON (AP) — Michelle lowed her to accrue time to get back into the car-
Carter, the woman con- off her sentence. bon monoxide filled truck,
victed of manslaughter Carter's release comes af- she did absolutely nothing
for urging her suicidal boy- ter the U.S. Supreme Court to help him: she did not
friend to kill himself in text declined last week to hear call for help or tell him to
messages that included, her lawyers' appeal of her get out of the truck as she
"Just do it, babe," was re- involuntary manslaughter listened to him choke and Michelle Carter leaves the Bristol County jail, Thursday, Jan.
23, 2020, in Dartmouth, Mass., after serving most of a 15-month
leased from jail Thursday af- conviction in Roy's 2014 die," Justice Scott Kafker manslaughter sentence for urging her suicidal boyfriend to kill
ter more than three months death. wrote in the state Supreme himself in 2014.
was shaved from her sen- It also comes after she was Judicial Court's decision. Associated Press
tence for good behavior. denied parole in Septem- Carter and Roy both lived
Carter, 23, walked out of ber. State parole board in Massachusetts but met Carter's lawyers argued in person's suicide.
the Bristol County jail in members said in their de- in Florida in 2012 while both their Supreme Court appeal The lawyers also argued
Dartmouth, Massachusetts, cision that they "remain were on vacation with their that the conviction should that there was simply not
wearing the same white troubled" that Carter not families. Their relationship be thrown out because it enough evidence to prove
blazer, dark slacks and a only encouraged Roy to consisted mainly of tex- was an "unprecedented" Carter urged Roy to get
dark turtleneck she wore kill himself, but also actively ting and other electronic violation of their client's back in his truck to die, or
last February, when a judge prevented others from in- communications. Both First Amendment rights that that he would have lived if
ordered her to begin serv- tervening. teens had depression, and suggested "words alone" she had called for help or
ing a 15-month sentence. Carter's case garnered Roy had made suicide at- are enough to hold some- taken other actions to try
The Plainville native didn't national attention, includ- tempts. one responsible for another and save his life.q
speak as two jail staffers es- ing an HBO special, as it
corted her to an SUV where raised thorny legal ques-
her lawyer and parents tions about free speech
were waiting for her. She and provided a disturb-
also declined to speak to ing look at teenage rela-
reporters later Thursday as tionships and depression.
she reported to her proba- It also sparked legislative
tion officer. proposals in Massachusetts
State officials say Carter's to criminalize suicide coer-
probation ends Aug. 1, cion.
2022. She also can't have In text messages sent in the
any contact with her late days before Roy's death,
boyfriend Conrad Roy III's Carter encouraged him to
family and can't profit from follow through with his sui-
her story during that time. cide plan and chastised
Roy's mother, Lynn Roy, him when he didn't.
said Thursday she's looking "The time is right and you
forward to a "new chapter" are ready ... just do it
in her life. babe," Carter, who was 17
"It is now time to focus on at the time, wrote in a text
the positives in my life," the day Roy, 18, killed him-
she said in a statement. "I self.
will continue to honor my A judge determined Carter
son every day, keeping his caused Roy's death when
memory and spirit in my she ordered him in a phone
memory, and to find ways call to get back into his
to help others who may be parked truck, which he
experiencing what I have had rigged to fill up with
experienced." deadly carbon monoxide.
Roy's aunt Becki Maki ac- The phone call wasn't re-
knowledged the fam- corded, but the judge re-
ily is "disappointed" Carter lied on a text Carter sent a
wasn't required to serve her different friend in which she
full sentence, but said that said she had told Roy to
it still "doesn't change that "get back in."
Conrad is forever gone." Carter opted for a bench
Bristol County Sheriff Thom- trial, an unusual legal strat-
as Hodgson, who oversees egy that meant a judge
the jail where Carter served decided her fate rather
her sentence, said he un- than a jury. She also did not
derstood how Carter's re- testify in her defense at the
lease could be painful for trial.
Roy's family and others. But The state's highest court
he said Carter had been a upheld Carter's conviction
"model inmate" who stayed last February and she was
out of trouble and par- ordered to begin serving