Teen Text Killer Michelle Carter is begging for her involuntary manslaughter conviction to be overturned and even the ACLU has stepped in to fight for her freedom, RadarOnline.com exclusively learned.
Attorneys for Carter appeared at the Massachusetts State Supreme Court on Thursday, October 4, 2018 the Clerk of Court confirmed to Radar. The Appellate Court judges have 130 days to make a decision on Carter’s case.
She was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III, who committed suicide in July 2014. The judge stated she was “wonton and reckless” when she encouraged him to kill himself in thousands of text messages that were presented in court.
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Carter was only 17 at the time of Roy’s death and was sentenced to “2.5 years in the Bristol County House of correction, with 15 months to be served and the balance to spend it with probation for five years from August 3, 2017 to August 1, 2022,” court documents stated after her conviction.
Her defense team are arguing that a conviction centered on “words alone” violates her free speech and constitutional rights.
The American Civil Liberties Union joined Carter’s defense team also to argue for her conviction to be overturned.
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In documents obtained by Radar, the ACLU argued that convicting her of encouraging Roy to commit suicide “violates the First Amendment and Article 16 because it is premised on a finding of wantonness and recklessness rather than specific intent. Even if it were possible to convict someone of homicide based on words of encouragement, free speech principles would require the indictment to allege, and a factfinder to find, that she specifically intended her words to cause someone’s death. Yet, because Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, the Commonwealth has impermissibly criminalized reckless speech.”
The judge suspended Carter’s sentence until the appeal process was completed.
Prosecutors presented thousands of text messages exchanged between Carter and Roy in the days, hours and minutes leading up to his suicide in a K-Mart parking lot in July 2014.
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“You’re so hesitant because you keep overthinking it and pushing it off. You just need to do it Conrad. The more you push it off, the more it will eat at you,” Carter texted to Roy on July 12, 2014 as he waived in his decision to kill himself.
The same day she sent him another text that said: “You’re ready and prepared. All you have to do is turn the generator on and you be free and happy. No more pushing it off, no more waiting.”
Do you think Carter’s conviction will be overturned? Sound off in comments below.
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