Michelle Carter, convicted in texting suicide case, released early

MASSACHUSETTS (WJW) -- A Massachusetts woman convicted of involuntary manslaughter for persuading her boyfriend to kill himself was released from prison Thursday, months ahead of schedule due to good behavior.

Michelle Carter, now 23, began serving a 15-month sentence in February, but she earned time off her sentence for good behavior, according to Jonathan Darling, spokesman at the Bristol County Sheriff's Office.

Conrad Roy III, 18, killed himself in July 2014. Investigators discovered scores of text messages from Carter in which she, according to prosecutors, berated Roy and encouraged him to go through with the suicide, even after he expressed hesitation.

"I thought you wanted to do this. The time is right and you're ready, you just need to do it! You can't keep living this way," she wrote in one exchange.

At her trial, prosecutors said Carter listened over the phone as Conrad Roy suffocated from carbon monoxide inhalation in his pickup truck, and they said she did not tell his parents or authorities when he died.

Carter was tried as a juvenile and found guilty in 2017. Her attorneys appealed the conviction and argued that her texts and words were a form of speech protected by the First Amendment.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would not take up her case for review.