Michelle Carter Suicide Texting Case Appeal: Conviction Upheld

The state's highest court has upheld the involuntary manslaughter conviction for the woman who via text messaging encouraged her boyfriend to kill himself.

Michelle Carter's lawyers argued in October before the Supreme Judicial Court that prosecutors did not do enough to prove she was responsible for her Conrad Roy III's suicide, and that convicting someone based on words alone sets a dangerous precedent.

Carter, 21, of Plainville, was sentenced last summer to 15 months in jail, but she has remained free during her appeal after Judge Lawrence Moniz granted a delay on incarceration. Roy was 18 when he killed himself in 2014.

Carter, who was 17 at the time, texted Roy to get back into a truck that was running in the parking lot of a Fairhaven Kmart. Roy was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning.

The Commonwealth had asked for a sentence of seven to 12 years in a state prison. The defense asked for five years of probation with conditions, including mental health counseling, supervised probation of all mental health treatment and no contact with the victim's family.

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In this June 8, 2017, file photo, defendant Michelle Carter listens to testimony at Taunton District Court in Taunton, Mass., in Taunton, Mass. Carter was convicted in June by a judge who said her final instruction to Conrad Roy III caused his death. Carter’s attorneys filed the notice that they intend to appeal her conviction and 15-month jail sentence Wednesday, Aug. 30, in Juvenile Court in Taunton. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, Pool, File)