Court Upholds Texting Suicide Conviction: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has upheld the voluntary manslaughter conviction of a 22-year-old Fairhaven woman who sent dozens of text messages to encouraged a boy she knew to commit suicide. Alanna Durkin Richer of the Associated Press reports that in 2014 Michelle Carter was 17 when she texted 18-year-old Conrad Roy III and urged him to go through with his plan to kill himself via carbon monoxide poisoning. According to prosecutors, she then listened to him choke to death. The teens had met two years earlier in Florida while on vacation with their families and their relationship consisted mostly of texting and emails. Both teens had been treated for depression. Two months after the suicide Carter texted a friend saying that Roy's death was her fault. At trial, the judge said that Carter had a duty to call the police and Roy's family when she knew he was killing himself. The Court's decision is here.
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