Woman convicted for telling boyfriend to commit suicide appeals case to Supreme Court

Michelle Carter, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after encouraging her boyfriend to take his own life, appealed her conviction to the Supreme Court on Monday, according to NBC News.

Carter, 22, was sentenced in 2017 to 15 months in prison. In 2014, at the age 17, she was on a phone call with Conrad Roy III while he inhaled carbon monoxide inside a truck in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.

{mosads}The Massachusetts Supreme Court upheld the conviction in February, ruling the evidence indicated that “by her wanton or reckless conduct, she caused the victim’s death by suicide.”

Carter’s attorneys argued in a writ of certiorari petition filed Monday that the conviction is a violation of her right to free speech under the First Amendment, according to NBC News.

In their petition to the high court, lawyers for Carter wrote that the conviction of a person for encouraging a suicide without providing the means or participating in the killing was unprecedented and noted that “no state had interpreted its common law or enacted an assisted suicide statute to criminalize such ‘pure speech.'”

The petition also argues the conviction violated Carter’s Fifth Amendment due process rights by arbitrarily enforcing assisted suicide laws.

“In the end, a criminal conviction for involuntary manslaughter should not turn on a labeling game by which a court deems pure speech to be unlawful action that deserves no First Amendment protection,” the petition read, according to NBC.

The court has not yet indicated whether it will hear the case. Monday was the deadline to file petitions.