Michelle Carter Appeals Conviction In Boyfriend’s Death

The lawyers for Michelle Carter, the woman serving a jail sentence after encouraging her boyfriend via text messaging to kill himself, have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review her case. Carter's lawyers filed a petition Monday appealing her involuntary manslaughter conviction.

Carter, 22, is serving a 15-month prison sentence that started in February, when the highest court in Massachusetts upheld her 2017 conviction in the death of 18-year-old Conrad Roy III. Carter was 17 at the time. Carter sent her boyfriend, who was suicidal, a number of text messages encouraging him to follow through on his plan to take his own life.

A judge found Carter responsible for Roy's 2014 death after she told him in a phone call to get back in his truck, which was filling with carbon monoxide. The phone call wasn't recorded, but Carter sent her friend a text message relaying that she told Roy to get back in his truck. The judge convicted her of involuntary manslaughter.

Her attorneys have argued that she should have been protected under the First Amendment.

On July 12, 2014, Roy died 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.

The appeal comes a day before the release of a two-part film on HBO. Prosecutors portrayed Carter as attention-seeking and cruel. The film aims to dig into the legal case that gripped the nation and look at a different side of the girl.

Carter opted for a bench trial, having a judge decide her fate. The documentary's director has said he wants the film to act as the jury trial she didn't get.

As part of her sentencing, Carter is banned from profiting from the crime, including signing deals for movies, books, television shows or interviews.

Previously:

• Michelle Carter Is Headed To Prison
• Michelle Carter 'Texting Suicide' Film Debuts On HBO
• Michelle Carter On Boyfriend's Suicide: 'I Could Have Stopped Him'
• Michelle Carter Gets Jail Time In Texting Suicide Case
• Carter To Appeal Conviction