Michelle Carter, the Massachusetts woman behind bars for encouraging her boyfriend to commit suicide through a slew of disturbing texts, is slated to walk out of prison next week despite the Supreme Court’s recent decision against hearing an appeal in the case.
The 22-year-old Plainville native began serving out her 15-month sentence in February 2019 after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2014 suicide of her 18-year-old beau, Roy Conrad III.
On Monday, it seemed she would remain behind bars when the Supreme Court announced it would not take up her appeal – but the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office has since confirmed Carter would be freed ahead of her May release date on account of good behavior.
“There have been no problems and she has been attending programs, which is common at state facilities like the Bristol House of Correction,” spokesperson Johnathan Darling told Boston 25 News.
Darling in a previous statement to the Daily News said inmates can earn up to 10 days off their sentences each month for upstanding behavior and self-betterment. By September, Carter had already worked two months off her prison time.
The Roy family told NBC Boston they also recently received a letter alerting them to Carter’s impending release from the Dartmouth facility, set for Jan. 23.
Carter was 17 years old when sent a series of messages goading her boyfriend into his suicide on July 13, 2014. That night, Conrad parked his truck outside a Fairhaven Kmart and allowed it to fill with Carbon Monoxide.
“I think your parents know you’re in a really bad place,” she wrote in one text. “I’m not saying they want you to do it, but I honestly feel like they can except it. They know there’s nothing they can do, they’ve tried helping, everyone’s tried.”
Another reads: “You keep pushing it off and you say you’ll do it but u never do. It’s always gonna be that way if u don’t take action.”
The case sparked widespread attention and eventually prompted potential legislative change. In wake of the tragedy, Massachusetts lawmakers proposed “Conrad’s Law,” which would make coercing someone into suicide a crime punishable with up to five years behind bars.
It was also the subject of the HBO documentary “I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth vs. Michelle Carter,” released in March 2019.
Carter’s lawyers, who tried to paint her as an unknowing teen during her 2017 trial, recently argued in their Supreme Court appeal that the conviction should be thrown out because it was an “unprecedented” violation of free speech rights.
“The trial judge’s verdict and the [state supreme court] affirmance leave no doubt that Carter was convicted for her words alone – what she said and failed to say,” they said in a statement to ABC News earlier this week.
“Carter neither provided Roy with the means of his death nor physically participated in his suicide.”
