The Supreme Judicial Court has upheld the involuntary manslaughter conviction of Michelle Carter, who repeatedly called and texted her boyfriend to go through with suicide in his truck, even as he had second thoughts. The unanimous opinion, written by Associate Justice Scott Kafker, rejected Carter’s claims that her communications to the victim were protected free speech under the First Amendment and that trial court judge should have held her conduct to a standard for a “reasonable juvenile” rather than for a “reasonable person”.
Read the opinion and the Boston Globe article.
http://socialaw.com/services/slip-opinions/slip-opinion-details/commonwealth-vs.-michelle-carter'
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/02/06/sjc-rule-case-michelle-carter-convicted-involuntary-manslaughter-death-year-old-man/jmOuFii7iTZFKrnEXPzzAM/story.html
Relevant Social Law Library resources include:
Massachusetts juvenile delinquency and child welfare law sourcebook & citatory KFM2995.Z9 M37 2018
http://encore.socialaw.com/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1149800
Trying murder and other homicide cases in Massachusetts KFM2967.H6 T79 2018
http://encore.socialaw.com/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1149441
Smolla and Nimmer on freedom of speech KF4772 .S66 1996
http://encore.socialaw.com/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1130467
APA handbook of psychology and juvenile justice HV9104 .A822 2016
http://encore.socialaw.com/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1142811