Woman in Texting Suicide Case Is Out

Michelle Carter released early for good behavior
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 23, 2020 10:40 AM CST
Woman in Texting Suicide Case Is Out
Michelle Carter, left, leaves the Bristol County jail on Thursday in Dartmouth, Mass.   (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

The woman convicted in Massachusetts' "suicide by text" case was released from jail Thursday. Michelle Carter, now 23, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for, when she was 17, encouraging her 18-year-old boyfriend, Conrad Roy III, to go through with his planned suicide. She called and texted him as he sat in his truck in 2014, and ultimately he did go through with his plan, dying after poisonous fumes filled the truck. Though Carter was denied both parole and a Supreme Court review of her case, she was granted early release for good behavior and attending jail programs; inmates can earn up to 10 days off their sentence every month. She was sentenced to 15 months behind bars but got out more than three months early. She'll now serve five years of probation.

"News of the Supreme Court denying to hear her case far [outshadowed] the news of her early release," Roy's family says in a statement, per NBC News. "Her time in jail, no matter how long or short, will not change the outcome of a guilty verdict, which is thankfully being upheld." But Roy's grandfather added to the Boston Herald, "The sheriff should serve the rest of her time. He lets her go because she's a good girl? She's not a good girl." Carter's parents picked her up from the Bristol County House of Correction and Jail, Fox News reports. (More Michelle Carter stories.)

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