A Particular Version of Suicidal Coercion: Michelle Carter

On July 13, 2014 the body of 18-year-old Conrad Roy was found inside the cab of a pickup truck in the parking lot of the Fairhaven, MA K-Mart store, a scene which suggested the young man had succumbed to suicide by way of inhaling carbon monoxide from a gas generator found at the scene. Before long, however, police not only discovered his cell phone, but also an extensive thread of revealing text messages inside that offered the notion Conrad's death wasn't quite as it seemed. Soon enough, his girlfriend, 17-year-old Michelle Carter, became a suspect in the case, and was ultimately convicted of involuntary manslaughter for her involvement. But in the process, the legal system, in addition to the public, were asked to answer a question for which there was seemingly little precedent in a burgeoning digital world: Is it a crime to tell a person to kill himself, or is such an action protected by the freedom of speech guaranteed in the US Constitution? Join host Ryan Kraus for a psychological exploration of this event in an effort to understand the mental illness that precipitated the horrifying result.