In the era of constant communication and digital revolution, is there a point at which it can all become too much? It’s an argument prosecutors are making in the case against Inyoung You, who has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of her boyfriend, Boston College student Alexander Urtula. Authorities have found the two exchanged more than 75,000 texts over two months — including hundreds where You told Urtula to, "go kill [himself]" or to "go die." The case has many similarities to that of Michelle Carter, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for urging her friend, Conrad Roy, to kill himself through texts and phone calls, when he was having second thoughts. Her lawyers have since filed an appeal with the Supreme Court.
Adam Reilly, in for Jim Braude, was joined by Nancy Rappaport, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a child psychiatrist at the Cambridge Health Alliance, and Meredith Ganser, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Cambridge Health Alliance who also teaches at Harvard Medical School, to discuss.
