Michelle Carter Will Be Released From Prison Two Months Early Even If Parole Board Rules Against Her
Michelle Carter, who is currently awaiting a parole board decision, has already earned time off her sentence for good behavior, the Bristol County House of Detention confirms.
Michelle Carter, who infamously prodded her boyfriend to commit suicide over texts when they were teens, is due to be released early from prison regardless of a parole board's upcoming decision.
Carter, now 22, has served seven months of her 15-month sentence at the Bristol County House of Correction in Dartmouth, Massachusetts for involuntary manslaughter in Conrad Roy III's 2014 death. She appeared before a parole board behind closed doors this week to request an early release. It could take 48 hours for that decision to be made.
However, Jonathan Darling, a spokesman for the Bristol County House of Detention, said that even if the parole board opts to not release Carter mid-way through her sentence, she has already earned two months off.
“She has been attending programs and classes inside the jail, and she has a job inside the jail,” he told the New York Post. “She’s earned almost two months good time off. Her original date was in May, and now I believe as of this morning she has earned enough that she could get out in the middle of March.”
Carter was convicted in 2017 in her boyfriend's death. Roy was found dead at age 18 after he let his truck fill with carbon monoxide in a parking lot. After his death, a trail of text messages revealed that Carter, then 17, was relentless in her pro-suicide texts to him.
Shortly after entering prison, Carter was described as a “model inmate" by Darling, who also told the Boston Herald that Carter had been “very polite with our staff.’
Carter’s lawyers have been trying to appeal her conviction, claiming it violated both her First Amendment right to free speech and her Fifth Amendment right to due process. Her lawyers want to bring the case to the Supreme Court, where they hope her conviction will be reviewed and vacated. In a petition filed over the summer, Carter’s defense wrote, “Michelle Carter’s conviction for involuntary manslaughter in connection with Conrad Roy III’s suicide is unprecedented.”
Earlier this year, HBO aired "I Love You, Now Die," a documentary directed by Erin Lee Carr which chronicled the controversial case.