The US Supreme court has said it will not take up an appeal brought by Michelle Carter, who was charged with involuntary manslaughter after encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself through texts and phone calls.
The case against the 17-year-old gained national media attention after text messages showed the young woman repeatedly urging 18-year-old Conrad Roy III to kill himself.
Mr Roy eventually died by suicide after multiple failed attempts in July 2014, when he filled his truck with carbon monoxide in a parking lot.
In their appeal to the Supreme Court, Carter's attorneys argued that her right to free speech was violated when she was sentenced based on the words she spoke to Mr Roy.
Her conviction and jail sentence has effectively been left intact with the Supreme Court’s refusal to take on the case.
Carter was previously sentenced to serve 15 months in jail after a lower court said she espoused “speech integral to criminal conduct” — an exception to the First Amendment with long established precedent in the courts, NBC News reported.
“Carter neither provided Roy with the means of his death nor physically participated in his suicide”, the lawyers argued.
Carter told a friend that she encouraged Mr Roy to get back into the car at one point when he stepped out in fear and called her on his cellphone.
Phone records showed the pair spoke twice on the day of Mr Roy’s death, as Carter texted him encouraging him “just do to it” and saying “the time [was] right” for him to kill himself.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court had previously upheld the conviction against Carter, writing in its decision: “The evidence against the defendant proved that, by her wanton or reckless conduct, she caused the victim’s death by suicide.”
“Her conviction of involuntary manslaughter as a youthful offender is not legally or constitutionally infirm", the lower court ruled. "The judgement is therefore affirmed."
Carter's original sentencing of two-and-a-half years was reduced when her attorneys filed an initial appeal, causing all but 15 months of her sentencing to be suspended.
