What Can We Learn from the Michelle Carter Texting Suicide Case?

In this episode of the Psych Central Show, hosts Gabe Howard and Vincent M. Wales examine the recent case of Michelle Carter, a young woman in Massachusetts who was tried for involuntary manslaughter in the suicide of her eighteen-year old friend, Conrad Roy, based primarily on a series of text messages and phone calls. In what came as a shock to many, Carter was found guilty. The trial focused on extensive messages between the two, especially in the month leading up to Roy’s death, in which it is shown that the then seventeen-year old Carter went from urging Roy to seek help to actively helping him plan for his own death and, finally, to blatantly urging him to take his own life.