Michelle Carter, the woman who urged her boyfriend to kill himself by inhaling toxic carbon monoxide fumes, was denied parole and will serve out her entire sentence in prison.
Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2017 for encouraging 18-year-old Conrad Roy III to kill himself in July 2014.
While Roy sat in his truck inhaling the toxic fumes, Carter continued to text him and encourage him to take his own life.
He made her promise that she would tell his parents where to find his body. She made him promise to delete all of their text messages before he died.
Carter appealed her 2017 conviction, but in February she began serving a 15-month prison sentence with the possibility of parole.
Members of the Massachusetts Parole Board met to decide Carter’s request for parole on Sept. 19, 2019.
In rejecting her request, the parole board members said they were “troubled that Ms. Carter not only encouraged Mr. Conrad [Roy] to take his own life, she actively prevented others from intervening in his suicide.”
“Ms. Carter’s self-serving statements and behavior, leading up to after his suicide, appear to be irrational and lacked sincerity,” the members said. “Release does not meet the legal standard.”
Carter’s attorney insists that she was exercising her freedom of speech when she told Roy to kill himself.
Joseph Cataldo, told ABC News that the parole board’s decision is “incorrect and dangerous”.
“Additionally, it is never in society’s best interest to incarcerate anyone for the content of their speech where there is not a specific statute previously enacted,” he added.
