It's a case that first made headlines more than a year ago, Michelle Carter was charged with manslaughter after prosecutors say she encouraged her boyfriend, Conrad Roy, to commit suicide. Carter, from Plainville, Massachusetes was 17 at the time and Roy, from Mattapoisett, was 18. Prosecutors say in the days before Roy died, texts show Carter instructed Roy to stop talking about killing himself and, "just do it."
On the day of his death, officials say Carter both texted and spoke on the phone with Roy as he turned on a generator in the cab of his truck with the goal of killing himself with the carbon monoxide and when, at one point, Roy got out of the truck, Carter told him to get back in. Now, the question before the state's highest court is whether encouraging someone to kill themselves is, in this case, involuntary manslaughter.
Criminal Defense Attorney Brad Bailey (@Brad4Justice) and Criminal Law Attorney Jack Cunha joined Jim on Thursday to discuss. Bailey said he doesn't think the prosecution can meet the elements of manslaughter. "There's no affirmative act here," he said. "We don't have an assisted suicide prohibition [in Massachusetts.] There are 39 states with laws that make encouraging or assisting in a suicide illegal.
Cunha said that the crime committed was "bad form" but she did not cause his death. Bailey agreed that there was no crime here. "If she had taken some physical act," said Cunha, it would have been manslaughter. They agreed that there has to be an anti-assisted suicide law for this to be a crime.
