Lawyers for woman who encouraged boyfriend to kill himself ask highest court to toss conviction



BOSTON — Lawyers for a woman who as a teenager encouraged her suicidal boyfriend to kill himself in dozens of text messages are urging Massachusetts' highest court to throw out her involuntary manslaughter conviction.

Daniel Marx is an attorney for 22-year-old Michelle Carter. Marx told the Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday that Carter didn't force Conrad Roy III to take his life. Marx says it was a "tragic decision that he made."

Marx also argued the only evidence showing Carter instructed Roy to get back in the truck filling with carbon monoxide was a text she sent to a friend two months later.

Assistant District Attorney Shosana Stern said Carter knew she had "significant leverage" over Roy. Stern says as Roy became more depressed, Carter became more insistent that he go through with killing himself.