Michelle Carter Released After Serving 10 Months For Convincing Boyfriend to Commit Suicide

Michelle Carter, a Massachusetts woman convicted of encouraging her boyfriend to commit suicide in 2014, is set to be released next week after she served ten months of her 15-month sentence.

Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of an 18-year-old male, Conrad Roy III.

She was initially sentenced in August 2017 to two and a half years in prison. Only 15 months of that sentence were mandatory in prison. The rest of the prison time would be suspended though she was to be on probation for another five years.

Carter began serving her sentence in 2019 February following her conviction on involuntary manslaughter in 2017 concerning the death of her then-boyfriend.

Her case was controversial because she sent text messages to her boyfriend, Roy encouraging him to commit suicide in 2014. He did so, hence the charges of involuntary manslaughter.

The case brought questions as well concerning the freedom of speech and the role of technology when it came to crime.

The Supreme Court though declined to hear Carter's appeal recently. Her legal representatives argued that the conviction was a violation of the First Amendment because she was found guilty by the text messages she sent to Roy rather than her actions.

The Supreme Court did not give reasons why the appeal was not going to be heard. Incidentally, it is not the first time the request was denied. In February, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court also upheld the conviction and enforced the prison sentence.

Carter and Roy's interactions became the subject of a documentary titled "I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth vs. Michelle Carter" that was released in March 2019.

The documentary went into the relationship between Roy and Carter and entailed how Carter contributed to her boyfriend's death for her social gain.

The documentary also examined the mental health states of both individuals as a couple and at the time of Roy's demise.

The Bristol County Sheriff's Office confirmed to media outlets that she would be let out early ahead of her May release.

The inmates at the Bristol County House of Corrections in Dartmouth can earn time for good behavior, and he claimed that Carter had been a model inmate.

Sheriff's department spokesperson, Jonathan Darling, told media outlets there had not been any problems with Carter as she has been attending her programs, which is the case at state facilities.