Michelle Carter’s riveting case is retold in Hulu’s new series The Girl From Plainville. Carter, 17, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on July 12, 2014, after persuading her lover, Conrad Roy III, 18, to commit suicide.
Carter’s tumultuous trial in 2017 stunned many, as lawyers on both sides tried to persuade Bristol County Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz to rule in their favor. According to CNN, the prosecution used Carter and Roy’s text exchanges to show that she caused his death directly, while the defense maintained that Roy acted alone.
Carter’s trial generated a discourse about mental health as more details about the case emerged. Both Carter and Roy were suffering from mental diseases, and as her trial progressed, both sides examined Carter’s and Roy’s mental health in the months preceding up to his death.
Carter and Roy both suffered from anxiety and despair
Throughout the trial, Carter and Roy’s histories of mental illness were often brought up. According to The Cut, both struggled with their mental health and sought help from therapists and counselors.
Dr. Peter Breggin, a psychiatrist, suggested that Carter’s drugs had affected her mental state. According to Esquire, he testified that a doctor increased Carter’s prescription to five milligrams of Celexa, an antidepressant, in April 2014. Prozac had also been prescribed to her.
According to Mass Live, Breggin claimed that the medicines caused Carter to “convert” from a “life-long helper” to an apathetic manic-depressive. “During this time, we notice her having negative pharmacological reactions. A fascinating nightmare series… in which the devil instructs her to commit suicide “He went on to explain. “She is still so fearful of the devil that she sleeps with her tiny poodle months later because she is so afraid of the demon.”
Carter had also been subjected to “involuntary drunkenness,” meaning she didn’t know right from wrong as a result of the drugs’ influence, according to him. According to Breggin, “involuntary intoxication” is a “legal phrase,” not an established mental health term in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
“I am confident the medication she was taking damaged her mental state, making it impossible for her to discriminate between good and wrong,” Carter’s father wrote in a character statement filed to the court, agreeing with Breggin.
Carter also struggled with an eating disorder and self-mutilation
Carter had previously struggled with an eating disorder. Samantha Boardman, a high school classmate, testified in court that Carter confided in her frequently when she was struggling. “I kept an eye on her and what she was consuming,” Boardman told South Coast Today.
According to Oxygen, Carter would text Boardman when she was experiencing trouble or resorted to self-harm. She sent one day, “I’m having a nervous breakdown.” “What’s the matter?” Boardman was the one who responded. “Did you injure yourself today?” You may talk to me, Michelle.”
“I was doing alright until I had pasta for dinner and I completely lost it,” Carter explained, adding that she needed to “get that knife out of my house.”
Carter was eventually diagnosed with anorexia and was referred to a clinic for treatment, according to The Wrap.
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Before Roy died, Carter tried to persuade him to get assistance
Roy was depressed, and according to The Wrap, he attempted suicide once before by eating a bottle of medications. Carter urged Roy that he should consider seeking treatment when she left the facility, acknowledging that the program had helped her.
“Michelle had attempted to counsel him and be there for him and listen to him and understand what he was going through, and then a switch was flicked two months prior to his death,” Erin Lee Carr, the director of the documentary I Love You, Now Die about Carter’s case, told Rolling Stone
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