Words Can Kill: The Necessary Shift in Indiana Law to Recognize the Potential for Physical Harm Caused by Encouraging Language

Abstract

In 2015, the idea that someone could be held criminally responsible for another’s suicide because of their words swept through the media. At the time, Massachusetts did not have a law criminalizing the verbal encouragement of suicide. But it became the first state to find a way to incorporate this conduct into an involuntary manslaughter analysis, finding that words alone can suffice for wanton and reckless conduct in Commonwealth v. Carter. After Carter, Massachusetts and many other states enacted laws against suicide encouragement to avoid grappling with how to convict someone for this crime without an explicit law addressing it. In 2019, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts affirmed Michelle Carter’s conviction of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced her to fifteen months in prison. The court classified her texts to Roy as wanton and reckless conduct by incorporating a theory of “virtual presence.” The court considered this theory, Carter’s relationship with the victim, Carter’s persistent communication with Roy, and Carter’s knowledge of the victim’s fragile mental state. Additionally, it was noted that an ordinary person would have known the grave risk of texting “just do it” to a person suffering from mental illness and actively attempting to commit suicide. Ultimately, Carter’s text instructing Roy to “get back in” the truck after he had removed himself turned her words into enough to constitute “wanton and reckless” conduct needed for the involuntary manslaughter conviction, regardless of the fact that Carter was not physically present at the scene.