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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 9 July 2019

U.S. high court urged to take

up texting suicide appeal

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) — A woman
who encouraged her sui-
cidal boyfriend in a barrage
of text messages to take his
own life should have her
This undated file photo shows the Yellowstone Club near Big Sky, involuntary manslaughter
Mont. conviction thrown out be-
Associated Press cause it violated her right
More alcohol seized to free speech, her lawyers

in connection to told the nation’s highest
court on Monday.
In urging the U.S. Supreme
resort for ultra-rich Court to hear her appeal,
Michelle Carter’s lawyers
called her conviction in
By MATT VOLZ Google’s Eric Schmidt and Conrad Roy III’s death “un-
Associated Press singer Justin Timberlake as precedented” and said her In this Aug. 3, 2017 file photo Michelle Carter, center, listens to
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Mon- members. case raises crucial ques- her sentencing for involuntary manslaughter for encouraging
tana officials said Monday A state investigation found tions about whether “words 18-year-old Conrad Roy III to kill himself in July of 2014.
that they confiscated over that the club was serving alone” are enough to hold Associated Press
800 bottles and cans of alcohol in two bars that someone responsible for and didn’t call Roy’s fam- ful killing.” The Massachu-
alcohol in a raid just days had applied for but not re- another person’s suicide. ily or the police. The phone setts high court “imagined
after the Yellowstone Club ceived a liquor license in “Michelle Carter did not call wasn’t recorded, but a range of conduct from
signed a deal to settle December and January. cause Conrad Roy’s tragic the judge focused on a coerced suicide to digni-
charges of serving booze at The club’s vice president death and should not be text message Carter sent fied death, but it offered
unlicensed bars at the pri- and general manager, held criminally responsible a friend two months later no clear, meaningful, and
vate ski resort for the ultra- Hans Williamson, had the for his suicide,” Daniel Marx, in which she said Roy had constitutional way to de-
rich. Officials believe the alcohol removed and one of her lawyers, said in gotten out of the truck be- termine where a particular
alcohol seized last month stashed in vans when an emailed statement. “This cause he was scared and case may fall on that spec-
from a terminal that serves inspector showed up, the petition focuses on just two she told him to get back in. trum. The deciding factor is
club members and others state agency said. of the many flaws in the Carter’s lawyers say that’s the prosecutor’s gut,” they
who fly into Bozeman Yel- Revenue officials originally case against her that raise not enough evidence to wrote.
lowstone International Air- proposed revoking all of important federal constitu- prove Carter did that. They Therefore, nothing “would
port on private jets belongs the posh resort’s liquor li- tional issues for the U.S. Su- also argue there is no evi- prevent such aggressive
to a company owned by censes, but the settlement preme Court to decide,” dence he would have lived prosecutions in all assisted
two Yellowstone Club ex- allowed alcohol to keep he said. if she had called for help or encouraged suicide
ecutives, Department of being served after the Carter was jailed in Febru- or that Roy would have lis- cases,” the lawyers wrote.
Revenue spokesman San- companies paid the fine, ary after Massachusetts’ tened to her if she had told Carter’s case drew inter-
jay Talwani said. briefly suspended serving highest court unanimously him to get out of the truck. national attention in part
Yellowstone Club attorney booze and removed Wil- upheld her conviction in Carter’s lawyers said in their because of the thousands
Shane Reely didn’t return a liamson from oversight and the death of the then-18- Supreme Court petition of disturbing text messages
call seeking comment. ownership of the liquor li- year-old Roy. Carter, now that the Massachusetts jus- between Conrad and Roy,
The allegations are the censes. Revenue officials 22, is serving a 15-month tices acknowledged that whose relationship existed
same as those settled in also approved a new liquor sentence. not everyone who verbally almost entirely over the
a $370,000 agreement license for the two bars that The court agreed with encourages someone to phones.
signed on June 19 that in- had been operating illegal- a judge who found that take their own life should “You keep pushing it off
volved the same company ly and returned over 9,000 Carter caused Roy’s death be prosecuted but pro- and say you’ll do it but u
and three others licensed bottles and cans of alcohol when she told him in a vided “no guidance to dis- never do. It’s always gonna
to sell alcohol at the ex- seized from the club’s bars phone call to get back tinguish sympathetic cases be that way if u don’t take
clusive resort that counts and warehouses earlier this in his truck as it was filling of assisted suicide from action,” Carter told Roy in
Microsoft’s Bill Gates, year.q with carbon monoxide culpable cases of unlaw- one text message. q