Thursday, August 3, 2017

The Woman Who Encouraged Her Boyfriend To Kill Himself Over Texts Could Be Sentenced Today

Glenn C.Silva / AP

Michelle Carter, the young woman convicted of involuntary manslaughter after she sent text messages to her boyfriend urging him to kill himself, is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.

A Massachusetts judge in June found Carter, 20, guilty encouraging her 18-year-old boyfriend, Conrad Roy, to take his own life three years ago.

Roy killed himself on July 12, 2014 by inhaling carbon monoxide produced by a water pump in his truck. The teen — who had a history of mental illness and had previously attempted suicide — got out of the truck because he was "scared," but Carter urged him to "get back in," according to text messages she exchanged with her friends.

Judge Lawrence Moniz

Glenn C. Silva / AP

Carter waived her right to a jury trial, leaving her fate to be decided by Judge Lawrence Moniz, who returned with a guilty verdict.

During Thursday's sentencing hearing, Moniz will decide if Carter should go to prison for her role in Roy's death.

Delivering his verdict in June, Moniz said that Carter's actions constituted "wanton and reckless conduct" when she instructed Roy to get back in his truck despite knowing that it was a toxic environment "inconsistent with human life." He said that her conduct caused Roy's death.

Carter, who was 17 at the time of Roy's death, was charged as a youthful offender which means she is eligible for adult-level sentencing.

She faces up to 20 years in prison, but it is unlikely that she will receive that maximum sentence, according to legal experts.

"I would be shocked if she got the maximum sentence," Daniel Medwed, a professor of law and criminal justice at Northeastern University School of Law, told BuzzFeed News on Wednesday.

Medwed said that he "strongly believed" Moniz would sentence her to prison, because during trial the judge "could barely conceal his disdain for her when he rendered the verdict."

However, he said that Moniz might favor leniency in the prison term, given Carter's relative youth at the time of the incident, her documented history of mental health troubles, and evidence of taking antidepressants as presented by her defense lawyers during the trial.

Conrad Roy

Court exhibits

At the trial, prosecutors showed the court numerous text messages between Carter and Roy to prove that she pressured Roy to kill himself, instructed him as to when and how to do it, assuaged his concerns over killing himself, and chastised him when he delayed doing so.

They argued that Carter used Roy as a "pawn in her sick game of life and death" and wanted to be "the grieving girlfriend" to gain her peers' attention and sympathy, which she always craved.

Carter's defense lawyers argued that Roy's suicide was his own choice and that Carter was neither present when he killed himself, nor did she inflict physical harm on him. A controversial psychiatrist testified that Carter was "involuntary intoxicated" on antidepressants before Roy's suicide, which led her to become "grandiose" and "delusional."

While the judge did not give credence to the psychiatrist's contention in his verdict, it is likely that he will consider Carter's mental health issues and medication as mitigating factors in the sentencing, Medwed said.

He suggested that victim impact statements from the Roy family will also play a role in Moniz's decision.

"It will be very important in what they have to say," Medwed said. "Are they very angry? Do they want her to be punished severely? Are some of them expressing forgiveness?"

Roy's father and sister

Pat Greenhouse / AP

One of Roy's aunts, Kim Bozzi, is expected to ask the judge to send her away for 20 years, according to a statement she plans to read at Thursday's hearing, the Boston Herald reported.

"I believe she should be kept far away from society,” Bozzi wrote in the statement obtained by the Herald.

"Take away the spotlight that she so desperately craves. Twenty years may seem extreme but it is still twenty more than Conrad will ever have," she wrote.

In a letter to Moniz, Carter's father, David Carter, pleaded with the judge for leniency and asked for her to be sentenced to probation and "continued counseling," the Herald reported.

"She will forever live with what she has done and I know will be a better person because of it," David Carter wrote in his letter. "I ask of you to invoke leniency in your decision-making process for my loving child Michelle."

He asked the judge to consider that his daughter was a "troubled, vulnerable teenager in an extremely difficult situation" and "made a tragic mistake."

Carter's lawyers will likely appeal the verdict in higher courts after the sentencing. Joseph Cataldo, her defense lawyer, declined to provide a comment to BuzzFeed News before the sentencing.

Medwed believes there's a "fairly good chance" the conviction could be reversed on appeal "based on causation," in that Carter didn't directly cause Roy's death, he caused his own death. "It was his decision, which broke the connection between her behavior and the result," Medwed said.

"What Carter did was abhorrent and atrocious but I'm not sure it was manslaughter," Medwed added. "The conviction is vulnerable on appeal."

He said the best solution would be for the Massachusetts legislature to create a law that would criminalize coerced suicide in the state.