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Teen Charged With Encouraging Boyfriend to Kill Himself


nucklehead

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At first glance, the text messages appear to show a disturbing case of cyberbullying: one teen urging another to kill himself.

But the texts were not sent by a school bully. They were from a 17-year-old girl to her boyfriend, whom she called the love of her life.

"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," Michelle Carter allegedly wrote to Conrad Roy III the day he parked his truck outside a Fairhaven Kmart and killed himself through carbon monoxide poisoning.

Prosecutors have charged Carter with involuntary manslaughter in Roy's 2014 death. They say that in the week before Roy killed himself, Carter assisted by urging him to overcome his doubts about taking his own life, pressuring him to do it and even telling him to get back in his truck after becoming frightened that the plan was working.

Carter's lawyer has strenuously denied that she pushed him to kill himself and has asked a judge to dismiss the case.

In their written response, prosecutors included text exchanges between Carter and Roy that they say support their claim that Carter caused her boyfriend's death by "wantonly and recklessly" helping him poison himself.

Roy, 18, had a history of depression and had attempted suicide two years earlier, taking an overdose of the painkiller acetaminophen.

"You can't keep living this way. You just need to do it like you did the last time and not think about it and just do it, babe," Carter texted him.

Carter's lawyer, Joseph Cataldo, said her texts amount to speech protected by the First Amendment. He said it's clear from the exchanges that Roy had made up his mind to take his own life and Carter, now 18, did not cause his death.

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/teen-charged-with-encouraging-her-boyfriend-to-kill-himself/ar-AAe6l7q?ocid=spartandhp

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If there really is such a thing as free speech this will easily be dismissed.

Free speech doesn't mean you can say anything an everything. You will get rekt for saying many things.

But with that said this stuff is normal. A lot of people do this. Even I have done this to multiple people. It is often because people like to say the will kill themselves but only to get attention. So it isnt uncommon for some people to say go ahead and do it (under the impression the person is just being a b*tch).

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Free speech doesn't mean you can say anything an everything. You will get rekt for saying many things.

But with that said this stuff is normal. A lot of people do this. Even I have done this to multiple people. It is often because people like to say the will kill themselves but only to get attention. So it isnt uncommon for some people to say go ahead and do it (under the impression the person is just being a b*tch).

Well, she's already got text messages of trying to talk him out of it, him saying basically "no, my decision is final", then supporting him. If that isn't protected by free speech, nothing is. This isn't even a borderline case of her, say, bullying someone to suicide who otherwise wouldn't. He was going to do it.

The guy also already attempted suicide.. at some point one has to realize when a person wants to take their life and just support them, even if it personally isn't what the person not killing themselves wants.

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Well, she's already got text messages of trying to talk him out of it, him saying basically "no, my decision is final", then supporting him. If that isn't protected by free speech, nothing is. This isn't even a borderline case of her, say, bullying someone to suicide who otherwise wouldn't. He was going to do it.

The guy also already attempted suicide.. at some point one has to realize when a person wants to take their life and just support them, even if it personally isn't what the person not killing themselves wants.

Don't get me wrong I am not against the girl she shouldn't get charged the guy was a b*tch.

But free speech isn't something solid defined it is jerked every which way. The law is simply whoever sells a point in a moment. A judge recently sent 3 minor kids aged 9 to 14 I believe to juvy simply because they refused to spend time with their father. Their reason being because they watched him beat the hell out their mom and didn't want to associate with him.

It wouldn't be the first time someone got charged for just verbally talking someone into killing themselves though. No one just does it without a history of showing potential for it.

She shouldn't get in trouble but with hyper sensitive murica on bullying now she may

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Don't get me wrong I am not against the girl she shouldn't get charged the guy was a b*tch.

But free speech isn't something solid defined it is jerked every which way. The law is simply whoever sells a point in a moment. A judge recently sent 3 minor kids aged 9 to 14 I believe to juvy simply because they refused to spend time with their father. Their reason being because they watched him beat the hell out their mom and didn't want to associate with him.

It wouldn't be the first time someone got charged for just verbally talking someone into killing themselves though. No one just does it without a history of showing potential for it.

She shouldn't get in trouble but with hyper sensitive murica on bullying now she may

I can tell you, barring the nutjob judge you describe, which is probably a higher incidence in Massachusetts, chances are still low this girl is found guilty of any crime.

Like any right, limitations placed upon it require an extraordinary burden of proof to justify a criminal act. And while some judges seem to forget that, by virtue of seeing so many more cases decided by logic, I still have some faith the justice system works itself out here.

Of course, we're talking about the US, where individual rights tend to prevail more, rather than countries where feelings trumps rights and people accept nanny government as useful.

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Guilty under the law or not I can't wrap my head around this. What a bizarre young girl and a $&!#ty friend. Ultimately who encourages suicide?

I lost a friend of 23 years this past January to suicide. If I had of known I would have done anything to stop it.

This is messed up.

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Guilty under the law or not I can't wrap my head around this. What a bizarre young girl and a crapty friend. Ultimately who encourages suicide?

I lost a friend of 23 years this past January to suicide. If I had of known I would have done anything to stop it.

This is messed up.

Why?

If they wanted to die and you stopped them, I don't see how a good friend would do that.

Edit: Oh also she did try and tell him not to, in the end, he made his decision and she was just being supportive. I don't see how this is a bad thing, nor do I follow the stigma attached to letting someone who wants to die, just die.

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On another side note her forehead is bigger than her face.

...as big as, but yeah, weird.

Suicide is a mental disorder/illness. The person attempting the act is not in a rational state of mind and quite often cannot be rationalized. Prior attempts also increase the risk of a recurrence.

A very close friend of mine went through this with his wife. She was successful after a number of attempts. Part of his therapy was dealing with the fact that it wasn't her that took her life, it was the illness.

I'm not exactly sure what this girl was getting out of what she was doing...disturbing to say the least.

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