Michelle Carter's attorney to ask judge to delay 15-month prison sentence

A judge will decide if Michelle Carter will begin her 15-month prison sentence after the Massachusetts Supreme court upheld Carter's involuntary manslaughter conviction for helping her boyfriend commit suicide.

Carter's attorney said they plan to appeal the case to the United States Supreme Court, and will ask the judge Monday to delay Carter's prison sentence once again until the appeal goes through.

The Bristol County District Attorney's Office filed a motion to revoke the stay of her sentence last week and asked the court to impose her 15-month sentence.

The Massachusetts Supreme Court stunned the legal community Wednesday when it unanimously upheld Carter's involuntary manslaughter conviction in the suicide of her boyfriend, Conrad Roy.

>>MORE: SJC: Michelle Carter 'overpowered a vulnerable person's will to live'

Read the ruling: SJC upholds Michelle Carter conviction

"It's such a unique issue," Boston 25 News legal analyst Peter Elikann said. "The idea that mere words, encouraging someone to kill themselves is enough to be found guilty of homicide. It's so unprecedented."

Carter was convicted in 2017 for convincing Roy to commit suicide, as Roy died in 2014 from carbon monoxide poisoning after locking himself in his truck.

Through texts, Carter told him to get back inside when he tried to escape the fumes.

"In the past, someone, in order to be charged with homicide, would have to be actively engaged with helping someone commit suicide," Elikann said. "Whether they're actually holding a mechanism for them, that kind of thing."

Elikann thinks the United States Supreme Court may take the case on. However, he said it's unclear if the judge on Monday will delay Carter's 15-month prison sentence for a second time.

"The prosecution is clearly going to argue, 'Hey, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts was unanimous that she had no case, therefore let her start doing the sentence now,'" Elikann said. "While her defense counsel will be saying, 'This is such an unprecedented decision,' the Supreme Court of the United States may really want to hear this to decide this issue for once and for all."

In a statement last week, Roy's grandfather told Boston 25 News the family wants Carter to begin her sentence.

Monday's hearing will be held in Taunton District Court.

Related:

Mother of Conrad Roy on Michelle Carter: 'Some people have no soul' (Sept. 2017)

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