Michelle Carter Released from Prison Early

The Supreme Court had denied cert in the texting suicide case

Michelle Carter was released from prison yesterday for good behavior, several months ahead of the scheduled end of her 15-month sentence. I previously blogged about the case, in which Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for encouraging her boyfriend to commit suicide, here, here, and here.

Last week, the Supreme Court (unfortunately, in my view) denied cert in the case.

Comments

[ThePublius]

Is there a point to this blog post? This is supposed to be a law blog, not a criminal case news aggregation site.

[Novanglus]

"We write mostly about law and public policy, though we feel free to blog about whatever else strikes our fancy."

[ThePublius]

She's not "blogging" about anything, she's simply relaying a terse account of a news story, with ZERO commentary.

[AmosArch]

Irina is fighting hard to decriminalize the right for women to drive people to suicide so the police can focus more attention on need to prosecute men who fibbed about their life stories as fullblown rapists.

[Bob from Ohio]

"her boyfriend "

He has a name.

[ThePublius]

Indeed. Conrad Roy II. May God rest his soul.

[Noscitur a sociis]

Reasonable minds can differ on the appropriate outcome in this case, but I'm not sure I see how this case presented a federal question at all.

[jph12]

At least one of her defenses was based on the First Amendment.

[Noscitur a sociis]

Yes, but that particular defense was pretty clearly meritless. There's no serious question that states can criminalize the conduct here: the only substantial legal question was whether Massachusetts actually had or not.

[jamesmusik]

The framing of this as an "early" release is misleading (and this article is by no means alone in don't so). She was credited for good time in accordance with the law and released precisely on the day the state was required to release her. Saying she was released early is to incorrectly suggest that someone exercised discretion to release her even though the state could lawfully hold her longer.