Recently, a writer on Odyssey penned a piece titled "To The Girl Who Texted Her Boyfriend To Kill Himself," that shared her belief that Michelle Carter, the girlfriend who repeatedly encouraged her boyfriend to commit suicide, is in the wrong and deserves to be locked up. However, I beg to differ. This case in not as black and white as the writer believes it is.
Carter did send some extremely hateful texts, which added to Conrad Roy's decision to end his life and she should be held accountable for that. However, Roy had options, just like everyone who has been emotionally abused. As a single guy for my entire life, I will admit I don’t fully understand the situation that he was in, but he could have left and blocked her calls and texts. He could have sought help and support from his family.
Now that you have a sense of what I believe, let me show you how I can prove she should only deserve some share of guilt.
According to Massachusetts law, there is no law against encouraging suicide. In addition, Carter was not present when Roy physically committed suicide. Despite the disgusting texts, it could have been ruled that only Roy was responsible for taking his own life.
During the trial, Carter testified that Roy was going to commit suicide and there was nothing she could do to stop him. That shows me that Roy wanted to commit suicide before he started receiving those text messages, leaving us to wonder why he truly committed suicide. Was it that he reached the end of his own rope personally? Or did Carter actually have some disturbing influence over him?
Still, Carter faced a fair judge and received a guilty verdict for the manslaughter charge, which many legal experts believe was going too far. Manslaughter charges require prosecutors to prove that a certain reckless action (sending the texts) lead to a predictable loss of life. Also, Carter's attorney, Joseph Cataldo, defended her texts as free speech and protected by the First Amendment.
So, while the crime may be disgusting in nature, we must sit back and set our emotions aside and logically consider the situation. We can't always point the finger at a person who did not physically pull the trigger — or, in this case, siphon carbon monoxide into Roy's car.
