Remember back in 2017 when Michelle Carter, a 23-year-old woman from Massachusetts, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for encouraging her 18-year-old boyfriend Conrad Roy III to commit suicide via text message?
Well, this week she was released from prison after serving less than a year due to good behaviour.
According to NBC News, Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death Conrad Roy II, who ended his life in 2014 “after filling the inside of his pickup truck with poisonous fumes.”
On the day he took his life, prosecutors said Carter texted him to “get back in” the truck when he told her he was having second thoughts about committing suicide.
Carter was released from jail 10 days after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take her up on her appeal, which meant her conviction would remain.
In a statement, Roy’s family said, “news of the Supreme Court denying to hear her case far outshadowed the news of her early release. Her time in jail, no matter how long or short, will not change the outcome of a guilty verdict which is thankfully being upheld.”
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Carter’s case was so pivotal that last year, ‘Conrad’s Law’ was proposed, “making it a crime, punishable by up to five years, for anyone who ‘intentionally coerces or encourages’ a suicide or suicide attempt,” according to NBC.
It’s a truly harrowing tale that has been recounted in documentaries and even a Lifetime movie, but the question now is: what happens to someone after they are found guilty of encouraging someone to commit suicide and are then released from prison?
NBC reports that Carter “cannot profit from her story, according to the conditions of her release,” which means you won’t be seeing her on Dr. Phil or the cover of a tell-all book or magazine story anytime soon.
Newsweek reports that Carter is now required to serve, “five years of probation, which allows [her] to serve the rest of her sentence out of prison.” It’s hard to know where she will go from here, but one thing’s for certain, and that is that her crime has not only caused so much pain, but it might’ve changed the laws around these sorts of cases for good.
If you, or anyone you know is struggling with mental health issues, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue for support.
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