Defense attorneys reflect on Michelle Carter case

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) – More than a year after Michelle Carter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in her boyfriend’s suicide, Massachusetts’ highest court is hearing her appeal Thursday.

Carter’s attorneys the case will set a precedent for those who may be prosecuted for encouraging suicide by words alone. Prosecutors are urging the supreme judicial court (SJC) to let the conviction stand, pointing to Carter’s texts and phone calls to Conrad Roy III, urging him to get back in his car, where he died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

“That’s, as the prosecution, their linchpin,” said Frank Camera, a local defense attorney. “That constituted reckless conduct.”

The case has brought forth First Amendment concerns over how far this precedent would stretch. Would cyberbullies be held culpable for potential suicides?

Camera says it’s murky. “I’m not necessarily sure if the SJC upholds this conviction, that’s not in the direction that this is leading,” he explained. “I’m not necessarily also sure that’s logical.”

He foresees the SJC upholding Carter’s guilty conviction, but ABC6 News Legal Analyst Ken Schreiber argues there is no causal evidence since Carter was not physically there forcing him to commit suicide, plus the case is unprecedented for manslaughter.

“My feeling is that this case will be overturned on an appeal and this woman will never see the inside of the jail cell,” said Schreiber.

Carter has been on house arrest since she was sentenced last August to a two-and-a-half year sentence, with 15 months to serve behind bars.

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