Michelle Carter Case May Influence Legal Responsibility for Battered Women SuicidesDRAFT
Michelle Carter is the young woman who, when age 17, encouraged Conrad Roy III, to kill himself. Mr. Roy, who suffered from depression and attempted suicide earlier, at one point stepped out of his carbon monoxide filled vehicle declaring that he was scared and would miss his family. Carter, who was miles away at the time, told Roy via telephone to return to the vehicle and complete the suicide. Later Ms. Carter affirmed in a text message what she had done. In a surprise verdict, the Massachusetts Juvenile Court judge found Carter guilty of involuntary manslaughter. The case raises multiple legal questions and is no-doubt headed for appeal.
Each year approximately 1200-1400 women and men are killed by intimate partners. At least that number of those who are abused by intimate partners commit suicide. Battered women are at least three times as likely to attempt suicide as the general population. There have been unsuccessful attempts to hold the abusive partner criminally accountable for those suicides, but without direct evidence of the speakers’ intention, those claims fail. Should the Carter finding be upheld, there the same legal theory can be used against abusers who encourage their partners and the partner’s children to kill themselves. Encouraging suicide is not uncommon in abusive relationships. Studies support the increased frequency with which battered women attempt suicide after having endured abuse.
Carter’s case adds the interesting fact that the communication happened remotely. Should the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decide that harmful words that encourage suicide create responsibility of the speaker whether remote or not, look for cases to be brought on behalf of battered women and their children who were directed by their abusers to end their lives.