A woman who was convicted of encouraging her boyfriend’s suicide was sentenced on Feb. 11 and was taken into custody after the Massachusetts high court upheld her involuntary manslaughter conviction.
“This case, legally, is not over,” defense lawyer Joseph Cataldo said in front of the judge. “We fully intend to file an appeal to the United States Supreme Court within the next 90 days.”
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld her conviction and said her actions killed Conrad Roy III, who was her boyfriend when he killed himself in 2014.
Her lawyers said they will now take Carter’s case to the Supreme Court. They noted that she has no prior criminal record, didn’t try to flee, and was getting mental health treatment.
Carter was a 17-year-old when she persuaded Roy, who was 18, to kill himself via dozens of text messages and calls, prosecutors said. He died after his truck filled up with carbon monoxide in a parking lot.
(Charles Krupa, Pool/AP Photo/ File)
“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,” Carter wrote in a text.
On the day he died, she wrote: “You keep pushing it off and say you'll do it but u never do. It’s always gonna be that way if u don’t take action.”
She also told him that he is “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.”
When she was taken away by bailiffs on Feb. 11, Carter showed no emotion. Family members reacted to the sentencing.
“Justice has been served,” said Becki Maki, Roy’s aunt, as NBC reported.
“This is something that shouldn’t happen. And hopefully, it won’t ever happen again.”
“It has very troubling implications, for free speech, due process, and the exercise of prosecutorial discretion, that should concern us all,” he continued.
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