Boston Marathon Bomber's Attorney Hired By Michelle Carter

A pair of high-profile attorneys have joined Michelle Carter's defense team. Former federal judge Nancy Gertner, defense attorney Daniel Marx, and attorney William Fick will take part in Carter's bid to overturn a manslaughter conviction from the high-profile suicide-by-text case.

Carter was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in jail after she was found guilty of helping her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III, commit suicide. Roy died in July 2014 in the parking lot of the Fairhaven Kmart from carbon monoxide fumes from a gas-powered water pump. Texts between the two show a then-17-year-old Carter spending days encouraging Roy to end his life and telling him to get back into the truck when he began to have second thoughts.

The conviction is being appealed to the state Supreme Judicial Court and Carter remains free on bail in the interim.

Gertner told the Boston Herald that she joined the defense team because of substantial issues that the court should address. Fick is known as the defense attorney for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev while Marx has worked on litigation in the state's drug lab scandals.

An appeal was filed to the SJC Feb. 5. Documents related to the case have been impounded.

Image Credit: George Rizer/The Globe via AP, Pool