Michelle Carter, a 23-year-old woman from Massachusetts was just released from jail on January 23rd, 2020, four-months earlier than her initial sentence. Serving 11 months out of her 15-month sentence, she now faces 5 months of probation. This comes a week after her appeal to overturn her case was rejected.
Carter encouraged her boyfriend Conrad Roy to kill himself back in 2014 when he last reached out to her in a K-Mart parking lot over the phone. He expressed doubts over committing suicide to which she repeatedly urged him to go through with it. She had messaged him the following messages:
“Last night was it. You keep pushing it off and you say you’ll do it (commit suicide), but you never do. It’s always gonna be that way if you don’t take action. You’re just making it harder on yourself by pushing it off. You just have to do it. Do you want to do it now?”
“It’s probably best that you do it now because everyone is sleeping. Just go somewhere in your truck and no one is really out there right now because it’s an awkward time. If you don’t do it now you’re never gonna do it, and you can say you’ll do it tomorrow, but you probably won’t.”
“You’re finally going to be happy in heaven. No more pain. It’s okay to be scared and it’s normal. I mean, you’re about to die.”
Roy was found dead the next day. He died by carbon monoxide poisoning in his car. Michelle Carter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, although coercion is not considered a crime in Massachusetts. She was also convicted because despite Roy taking major steps to take his own life, she was reckless and did not call anyone for help.
She has expressed regret over what she did. Especially to her friends directly after the incident. She told them that, “he just called me and there was a loud noise like a motor and I heard moaning like someone was in pain, and he wouldn’t answer when I said his name. I stayed on the phone for like 20 minutes and that’s all I heard. His death was my fault. He got out of the car and I told him to get back in… because I knew he would do it all over again the next day.” She also texted a friend saying, “I helped ease him into it and told him it was okay… I could’ve easily stopped him or called the police but I didn’t…”
The incident took place on July 13th, 2014 when Carter was 17 at the time. Both Roy and Carter experienced depression at the time, with Roy previously having made suicide attempts before. She was charged on February 4th, 2015 but she formally started her sentence in February 2019. She was initially set to be released on May 5th, 2020. She tried to appeal her case back in September but was rejected as well. She was finally released the next year after earning good behavior, where the staff praised her efforts within the prison.
Convicted Murderer Michelle Carter Released From Jail
