SJC upholds conviction of Michelle Carter.

Byline: Kris Olson

The Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday affirmed the involuntary manslaughter conviction of Michelle Carter, who at age 17 encouraged the death by suicide of her 18-year-old friend, Conrad Roy.

In a previous decision, the SJC had affirmed a Juvenile Court judge's denial of a motion to dismiss Carter's youthful offender indictment. The court had concluded that there had been probable cause to show "that the coercive quality of the defendant's verbal conduct overwhelmed whatever willpower [Roy] had to cope with his depression, and that but for the defendant's admonishments, pressure, and instructions, [Roy] would not have gotten back into [his] truck and poisoned himself to death."

Carter was then convicted in a Juvenile Court bench trial.

In Wednesday's decision, the SJC decided there was sufficient evidence to support the judge's finding of proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed involuntary manslaughter as a youthful offender.

The court also rejected other challenges, including a claim based in the First Amendment, saying those claims "lack merit."

Prior to his death on July 13, 2014, Roy had attempted suicide several times by various means, including overdosing on over-the-counter medication, drowning, water poisoning and suffocation. Carter had initially urged Roy to seek professional help for his mental illness.

But after Roy rebuffed Carter's request to have Roy join her at McLean Hospital, where she planned to seek treatment for an eating disorder, "the tenor of their communications changed," notes the SJC's opinion, authored by Justice Scott L. Kafker.

Over a two-week span from June 30 to July 12, 2014, Carter helped Roy plan how, where and when he would commit suicide and repeatedly chastised him for his indecision and delay in following through on those plans.

Cellphone records showed that Roy had called Carter and spent 40 minutes on the phone with her, and that she had placed a second call of similar length to him during the time when police believe Roy was in his truck committing suicide.

The Juvenile Court judge found that Roy had gotten out of the truck and was prepared to abandon his suicide attempt, as he had done in the past, only to be instructed by Carter to get back in, "knowing that it had become a toxic environment and knowing the victim's fears, doubts, and fragile mental state."

Carter then took no steps to save Roy.

All told, Carter's actions constituted "wanton and reckless...