A Massachusetts court on Wednesday upheld the involuntary-manslaughter conviction of Michelle Carter, who was found guilty in 2017 of convincing her boyfriend to kill himself via text messages. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that “the evidence was sufficient to support the judge’s finding of proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed involuntary manslaughter as a youthful offender.” The court cited how Carter provided her boyfriend, who was contemplating suicide, with methods to do so in a series of text messages. Carter also helped him plan the act, and downplayed his fears about how his suicide would affect his family. “I thought you wanted to do this. The time is right and you’re ready, you just need to do it!” Carter texted her boyfriend as he was having doubts about going through with suicide. “By her wanton or reckless conduct, she caused the victim’s death by suicide,” the ruling concluded. Carter’s lawyer, Daniel N. Marx, said in a statement to The Washington Post that they were considering a possible appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
