HBO film explores texting suicide case

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

Associated Press

BOSTON

Michelle Carter sent her suicidal boyfriend countless text messages encouraging him to follow through on his plan to take his own life until he actually did.

Two years after Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in a case that gripped the nation, the director of a new documentary wants viewers to decide for themselves whether her actions were criminal.

The two-part film, debuting Tuesday on HBO, digs into the legal case against Carter and explores a different side to the young Massachusetts woman portrayed by prosecutors as a cruel manipulator who coaxed Conrad Roy III into killing himself for attention.

“There was this very simple story put forth that Michelle Carter was this good-looking ice queen that set about to kill a young man to become popular,” said Erin Lee Carr, the director of “I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth V. Michelle Carter.” “I knew that that wasn’t going to be correct, but it would ultimately be the narrative that was set forth by the prosecution.”

Carter, now 22, began serving her 15-month jail sentence in February, but her attorneys are expected to file their appeal with the Supreme Court by Monday.

Carter didn’t take the stand at her trial, and she and her parents declined to be interviewed by Carr. But her voice comes through in the film in the form of the thousands of text messages between her and Roy, bringing viewers inside the teens’ twisted relationship that existed almost entirely over their phones.