Michelle Carter Released From Jail Early After Serving Time For Texting Suicide Conviction

Michelle Carter left a Massachusetts jail Thursday morning, over three months ahead of schedule due to "good time" earned, after serving 11 months for urging her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III, to kill himself.

In 2017, Carter, now 23, was tried as a juvenile for Roy’s death three years earlier. A judge found her guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced her to 15 months in jail. She began serving her time at the Bristol County House of Correction in Dartmouth last February.

"Ms. Carter has been a model inmate here at the Bristol County House of Corrections. She has participated in a variety of programs, held a job inside the jail, has been polite to our staff and volunteers, has gotten along with the other inmates, and we've had no discipline issues with her whatsoever," said Jonathan Darling, spokesman at the Bristol County Sheriff's Office, CNN reported.

Roy’s grandfather blasted Bristol Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson for Carter’s early release. “The sheriff should serve the rest of her time,” Conrad Roy told the Boston Herald. “He lets her go because she’s a good girl? She’s not a good girl.”

According to the publication, Carter’s release is directed by state law and not Hodgson nor the prison system.

In July 2014, Carter’s 18-year-old boyfriend killed himself in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, by inhaling carbon monoxide while parked in his truck in a Kmart parking lot. Investigators uncovered dozens of texts between the teens in the days leading up to Roy’s death.

“You're so hesistant because you keep overthinking it and pushing it off. You just need to do it Conrad. The more you push it off, the more it will eat at you,” Carter messaged Roy, according to a transcript of the texts obtained by Boston’s WFXT-TV.

In another exchange, a hesitant Roy told his girlfriend he was “freaking out” about how his suicide would affect family.

Carter responded with the message: “Conrad. I told you I'll take care of them. Everyone will take care of them to make sure they won't be alone and people will help them get thru [sic] it. We talked about this, they will be okay and accept it. People who commit suicide don't think this much and they just do it.”

On appeal, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld Carter’s sentence last February, rejecting her lawyer’s arguments the texts were protected free speech.

The state’s highest court ruled that Carter "helped plan how, where, and when" Roy would kill himself, "downplayed" Roy's concerns about how his loved ones would cope with his suicide, and "repeatedly chastised him for his indecision," CNN reported.

Earlier this month, the United States Supreme Court also denied Carter’s petition to review her conviction.

The remaining time on Carter’s sentence is suspended, and she must now serve five years of probation.

Read more: CrimeFeed