Woman convicted for encouraging boyfriend’s suicide will leave jail early despite parole denial

Michelle Carter, who is serving a 15-month prison sentence after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for encouraging her boyfriend to commit suicide, was denied parole on Thursday but will still reportedly leave jail weeks early.

Carter, 22, who began her sentence in February in the death of 18-year-old Conrad Roy II, has earned “good time” and will be released on March 13 instead of May 5, a spokesman from the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office told CNN on Friday.

News of Carter’s early release comes a day after a two-member state parole board denied her request to be released after serving roughly half of her sentence.

“The [Board] is troubled that Ms. Carter not only encouraged Mr. Conrad to take his own life, she actively prevented others from intervening in his suicide,” the parole board wrote in its decision. “Ms. Carter’s self-serving statements and behavior, leading up to and after his suicide, appear to be irrational and lacked sincerity.”{mosads}

One board member added in a statement that Carter’s release was “not compatible [with] best interest of society.”

At the age of 17, Carter in 2014 talked to Roy on the phone while he inhaled carbon monoxide inside a truck in Fairhaven, Mass. Prosectors said Carter texted Roy encouraging him not to back down after he got momentarily scared and hesitated.

“The time is right and you are ready … just do it babe,” Carter wrote in a text the day Roy died.

“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,” she said in another.

Carter’s attorneys later appealed the decision to the Massachusetts Supreme Court, arguing that the then-teen’s words were protected by the First Amendment. But the state’s highest court in February agreed with the lower court’s finding, concluding the evidence indicated “by her wanton or reckless conduct, she caused the victim’s death by suicide.”

Her legal team appealed the case to the Supreme Court in July, arguing again that the conviction is a violation of her right to free speech. Their petition also argues the conviction violated Carter’s Fifth Amendment due process rights by arbitrarily enforcing assisted suicide laws.