In August 2017, Michelle Carter was found guilty of manslaughter after she told her then-boyfriend to get back in his truck as he was attempting to take his own life.
She began that 15-month sentence in February 2019. Now, after asking Massachusettes state’s parole board for an early release on September 19, the board has denied her request the same day.
Photo of Michelle Carter being led to her parole hearing earlier today.
So far, she has served around 7 months of her 15-month jail sentence after she was convicted in 2017 of involuntary manslaughter for encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself.
(AP Photo/Steven Senne) pic.twitter.com/lpaG7hbhVt
— Tasneem N (@TasneemN) September 19, 2019
As USA Today reports, the board explained their decision to deny the now 22-year-old parole, saying:
“The (board) is troubled that Ms. Carter not only encouraged Mr. Conrad to take his own life, she actively prevented others from intervening in his suicide.”
The letter, written by two of the seven members of the board, continued by saying Carter’s statements given at the parole hearing “lacked sincerity”:
“Ms. Carter’s self-serving statements and behavior, leading up to and after his suicide, appear to be irrational and lacked sincerity. Ms. Carter needs to further address her causative factors that led to the governing offense. Release does not meet the legal standard.”
Those statements and details regarding Carter’s behavior at the hearing have not been made public. The members concluded that her release is “not compatible with [the] best interest of society.”
Michelle Carter, who was convicted of encouraging her boyfriend’s suicide over text messages, was ordered Monday to start serving her jail sentence https://t.co/VoJTKzxSXm pic.twitter.com/QKfKpaMmCD
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 11, 2019
During the 2017 trial, text messages sent between Carter and her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III, were made public. Many of their conversations dealt with discussing the when, where, and how of Roy’s suicide:
Carter: … You already made this decision and if you don’t do it tonight you’re gonna be thinking about it all the time and stuff all the rest of your life and be miserable. You’re finally going to be happy in heaven …
Carter: You can’t think about it You just have to do it? You said you were gonna do it like I don’t get why you aren’t
Roy: I don’t get it either. idk.
Carter: So I guess you aren’t gonna do it then, all that for nothing. I’m just confused like you were so ready and determined
Roy: I am gonna eventually. I really don’t know what I’m waiting for but I have everything lined up.
Carter: You keep pushing it off and you say you’ll do it, but u never do. Its always gonna be that way if u don’t take action. You’re just making it harder on yourself by pushing it off, you just have to do it.
Carter: I thought you wanted to do this. The time is right and you’re ready, you just need to do it! You can’t keep living this way. You just need to do it like you did last time and not think about it and just do it babe. You can’t keep doing this every day.
Following Roy’s death by suicide, Carter sent a text message to another friend. She told her friend that she could have stopped Roy’s suicide, saying that during their phone call as Roy sat in his truck, he hesitated for a second and got out. Carter told her friend in the same text message that she convinced Roy to get back in the truck.
Conrad Roy III’s suicide note to Michelle Carter was released before the defense restedhttps://t.co/6jUUsNi2Ku pic.twitter.com/yWujzkVTYg
— Intl. Business Times (@IBTimes) June 13, 2017
When he did, he died moments later. As court documents revealed, this was part of the aforementioned text Carter sent to her friend:
I knew he was in that Kmart parking lot, I knew he was gonna use the generator to inhale carbon monoxide I knew it all.
I just got off the phone with Conrads mom about 20 mins ago and she told me that detectives had to come and go thru his things and stuff, Its something they have to do with suicides and homicides. And she said they have to go thru his phone and see if anyone encouraged him do it on texts and stuff…Sam they read my messages with him, I’m done. His family will hate me and I could go to jail.
The judge presiding over the case, Judge Lawrence Moniz, explained before handing down his verdict, that Carter instructing Roy to get back in the truck “constituted wanton and reckless conduct.”
As USA Today reports, members of Roy’s family were present for the private parole hearing. Roy’s mother, along with other Massachusetts lawmakers, is looking to get legislation called “Conrad’s Law” passed, which will “criminalize suicide coercion in the commonwealth.”
Carter and her legal team have also filed for an appeal, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the 2017 ruling, citing her right to free speech.