Teenager who urged suicide via text message will stand trial

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La Paix

Fuck this place
First 100
Jan 14, 2015
38,273
64,597


BOSTON – A teenage Massachusetts girl who sent her boyfriend dozens of text messages encouraging him to take his own life and who allegedly told him to “get back in” a truck filled with carbon monoxide fumes must stand trial for involuntary manslaughter, the state’s highest court ruled Friday.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled Friday that a grand jury had probable cause to indict Michelle Carter, then 17, in the 2014 death of Carter Roy III, 18.

Carter’s lawyer had argued that her texts were free speech protected by the First Amendment and did not cause Roy to kill himself.

But the court, in a strongly worded decision, said the grand jury heard evidence suggesting that Carter engaged in a “systematic campaign of coercion” that targeted Roy’s insecurities and that her instruction to “get back in” his truck in the final moments of his life was a “direct, causal link” to his death.

“In sum, we conclude that there was probable cause to show that the coercive quality of the defendant’s verbal conduct overwhelmed whatever willpower the eighteen year old victim had to cope with his depression, and that but for the defendant’s admonishments, pressure, and instructions, the victim would not have gotten back into the truck and poisoned himself to death,” Justice Robert Cordy wrote for the court in the unanimous, 7-0 ruling.

The case drew national attention after transcripts of text messages Carter sent to Roy were released publicly, showing her urging him to follow through on his plan to kill himself and chastising him when he expressed doubts.

“I thought you wanted to do this. The time is right and you’re ready, you just need to do it!” Carter wrote in one message.

“You can’t think about it. You just have to do it. You said you were gonna do it. Like I don’t get why you aren’t,” she wrote in another message.

The teens had met in Florida two years earlier while visiting relatives. Their relationship largely consisted of text messages and emails. They hadn’t seen each other in more than a year when Roy died, even though they lived only about 50 miles apart in Massachusetts, Carter in Plainville, and Roy in Mattapoisett.

Roy’s grandmother, Janice Roy, said the family is happy the court ruled in favour of prosecutors and Carter can now be put on trial for manslaughter in her grandson’s death.

“He was very vulnerable at that stage,” she said of her grandson in the weeks before his death.

“I hope justice will be served,” said Roy’s grandfather, Conrad Roy Sr.

Carter’s lawyer, Joseph Cataldo, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday. He argued previously that Roy was a depressed teenager who had previously tried to take his own life and was determined to finish the job this time. He also argued that Carter should not have been charged with manslaughter because Massachusetts does not have a law against encouraging or assisting suicide

In addition to the text messages, prosecutors focused on a phone conversation Carter allegedly had with Roy while he was in his truck inhaling carbon monoxide fumes. Prosecutors said Carter sent a text message to one of her friends after Roy’s death and told her that while she was on the phone with Roy, he got out of his truck because he became frightened. She said she told him to “get back in.”

Gregg Miliote, a spokesman for Bristol District Attorney Thomas Quinn III, said prosecutors appreciate the court’s decision to uphold a lower court’s denial of Carter’s motion to dismiss the charge against her. They now will focus on preparing for trial, he said.

Teenager who urged suicide via text message will stand trial
 

Wild

Zi Nazi
Admin
Dec 31, 2014
85,008
123,335
Good. I don't when this stupid "kill yourself", encouraging suicide shit started, but it's time it's taken seriously. Absolutely no reason anyone should be this callous to another human being.
 

Ryann Von Doom

The Man
Jan 28, 2015
5,896
6,676
Good. I don't when this stupid "kill yourself", encouraging suicide shit started, but it's time it's taken seriously. Absolutely no reason anyone should be this callous to another human being.
Good thing you didn't deal with the AOL chat rooms...
 

Wild

Zi Nazi
Admin
Dec 31, 2014
85,008
123,335
Good thing you didn't deal with the AOL chat rooms...
I've never been one to stick around places where this kind of shit goes on and is allowed. Chat rooms are usually where the lowest scum tend to congregate...YouTube being a perfect example. I immediately hide the chats there when watching a presser or whatever.
 

Ryann Von Doom

The Man
Jan 28, 2015
5,896
6,676
I've never been one to stick around places where this kind of shit goes on and is allowed. Chat rooms are usually where the lowest scum tend to congregate...YouTube being a perfect example. I immediately hide the chats there when watching a presser or whatever.
Yep. I was a teenager in the AOL chat days and enjoyed the arguments. But what this kid did was probably 1/100th as bad as the shit we used to throw back and forth.
 

Left Hook Larry

3x Undisputed Monsters Champ/King of Buttertooths
First 100
Jan 14, 2015
12,562
17,019
I've never been one to stick around places where this kind of shit goes on and is allowed. Chat rooms are usually where the lowest scum tend to congregate...YouTube being a perfect example. I immediately hide the chats there when watching a presser or whatever.
youtube chats are kind of like a car wreck. it's terrible but i just cant look away.
 

Qat

QoQ
Nov 3, 2015
16,385
22,624
youtube chats are kind of like a car wreck. it's terrible but i just cant look away.
I never look at yt-comments but we got something similar on a specific sports-site.. its like.. sometimes makes you read the utter crap for 15 minutes and then realizing you not only lost the time completely, but also brain cells in the process. You'd been better off just staring at the ceiling.

Its like fast food I guess.
 

TalkingLeaf

Well-Known Member
Nov 4, 2015
443
959
r u canadian?
Im not. In the US.

Your the second person to ask me that. I may need to change my avatar, perhaps to an oak leaf or something.

Or maybe im too nice and need to be more rude :)

Not sure which. Or maybe the best thing would be to relocate to Canada, renounce my US citizenship and claim Canada as my homeland.
 

Qat

QoQ
Nov 3, 2015
16,385
22,624
Im not. In the US.

Your the second person to ask me that. I may need to change my avatar, perhaps to an oak leaf or something.

Or maybe im too nice and need to be more rude :)

Not sure which. Or maybe the best thing would be to relocate to Canada, renounce my US citizenship and claim Canada as my homeland.
Annex it! They won't fight a talking leaf.
 

Left Hook Larry

3x Undisputed Monsters Champ/King of Buttertooths
First 100
Jan 14, 2015
12,562
17,019
Im not. In the US.

Your the second person to ask me that. I may need to change my avatar, perhaps to an oak leaf or something.

Or maybe im too nice and need to be more rude :)

Not sure which. Or maybe the best thing would be to relocate to Canada, renounce my US citizenship and claim Canada as my homeland.
yea be more rude
 

Hauler

Been fallin so long it's like gravitys gone
Feb 3, 2016
45,415
57,815
Im not. In the US.

Your the second person to ask me that. I may need to change my avatar, perhaps to an oak leaf or something.

Or maybe im too nice and need to be more rude :)

Not sure which. Or maybe the best thing would be to relocate to Canada, renounce my US citizenship and claim Canada as my homeland.
Yeah, but then you'd be in Canada.
 

Sweets

All Around Dumbass
Feb 9, 2015
8,797
10,065
Good people need to know they can't treat people like shit.
 
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1031

Guest
I dunno about this. On the one hand, how she communicated with him is reprehensible; on the other hand, it was HIS decision. What precedent does this create? People who are gifted orators and/or crafting their arguments will be able to shift legal blame onto others.
But to think that someone would show such disregard for another person and in those circumstances.....eh, maybe she is best removed from society :/