Monday, 17 July 2017
Friday, 16 June 2017
See Shania Twain Perform Two New Songs on 'Today'
Just days after announcing a September 29th release date for her new album Now, Shania Twain dropped by NBC's Today to co-host and perform as part of the show's summer concert series. Twain sang her comeback single "Life's About to Get Good" and debuted the Nowtrack "Swingin' With My Eyes Closed." (Watch her sing "Life's About to Get Good Above," and "Swingin'" below.)
"I'm a go-getter," Twain says. "I'm a fighter. I have a lot of determination in me. I'm fiercely independent. That's what motivates me: challenge, and facing my fears. Of course it was scary coming out again after so many years, and writing the whole album alone, which I did on purpose to push myself and really find and rediscover myself as a songwriter, because that's really at the base of everything."Before taking the stage, Twain sat down with the show's hosts to discuss Now and her decision to return to country music 15 years after releasing her last album, 2002's Up!.
She also played a round of "Country Confessions," revealing that she wrote her 1997 Come On Over hit "From This Moment On" at a soccer game. "I write best when I'm really bored and I have nothing else going on," she laughs. "And the game was really boring."
During her concert set, Twain trotted out two old-school fan favorites "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" and "That Don't Impress Me Much." The Nineties superstar is gearing up for the promo push behind her new album and appears on Rolling Stone Country's new 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list.
What's The Business Fallout Of Cristiano Ronaldo Leaving Real Madrid?
The big news in the soccer world this week is that, following accusations of tax evasion, soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is reportedly interested in leaving club team Real Madrid and the nation of Spain altogether. It's tough to say just how serious the situation is right now, but such a split would have a huge impact not only on soccer's competitive landscape - Ronaldo just finished leading Real Madrid to its second consecutive Champions League title - but also on the sports business universe. So what, exactly, would be the fallout of such a momentous split?
Thanks to the Forbes SportsMoney Index, we can actually quantify what the business impact would look like. In the current ranking, Real Madrid ranks fourth while Ronaldo is sixth. The main driver of those high ranks are the huge business successes of both: Madrid is now worth $3.6 billion, good for third-most among soccer teams, while Ronaldo is the world's highest-paid athlete with earnings of $93 million. But our ranking also accounts for influence throughout the sports world, and both team and player greatly benefit from being associated with one another.
Simply removing that connection has an immediate - and sizable - impact on the ranks. Real Madrid drops to No. 15 on the list, sitting among the likes of the New York Giants, Coca-Cola and the Los Angeles Dodgers. That's still great company, but hardly the top-five spot the team currently occupies. The fall for Ronaldo would be much greater. Without Real Madrid, the superstar striker would be at No. 37, a spot currently held by Derrick Rose (and just a few places ahead of current teammate Gareth Bale).
Of course Ronaldo will find a job elsewhere, but few teams offer the same boost as Real Madrid. A return to Manchester United would keep him in his No. 6 spot, but any other realistic destination would drop him lower in the ranks. Some have suggested he could land with French club Paris Saint-Germain, which would put him at No. 15, behind Lionel Messi and just ahead of Eli Manning. He'd wind up in the same territory (or lower) by returning to the Premier League for any team besides Manchester United.
Real Madrid would also likely make a major investment in a replacement for Ronaldo. No soccer player matches Ronaldo's earning power, but another top-tier soccer player - say someone in the same tier as Zlatan Ibrahimovic - would be enough to keep the team among the top ten, if just barely.
Trump announces revisions to parts of Obama’s Cuba policy
MIAMI — President Trump, denouncing what he called his predecessor’s “terrible and misguided” opening to Cuba, outlined a new policy Friday that seeks to curb commercial dealings with the government in Havana and to limit the newfound freedom of U.S. citizens to travel to the island.
“Effective immediately, I am canceling the last administration’s completely one-sided deal with Cuba,” Trump told an enthusiastic audience, heavily weighted with members of South Florida’s Cuban American community who opposed former president Barack Obama’s normalization of relations with the communist government of President Raúl Castro.
Away from the tribulations of Washington, where he is bombarded with questions about investigations of his administration and regularly tweets his outrage, Trump appeared buoyed by the change of subject and adulation from a crowd that chanted his name.
Speaking in a packed theater in the heart of Miami’s Little Havana, he ticked off a litany of past and present examples of Cuban government repression, and said that Obama’s easing of restrictions on travel and trade had not helped thepeople
Play Ball! The 56th Congressional Baseball Game in Photos - See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/photos-congressional-baseball-game-washington-2017#sthash.gY0fkbsy.dpuf
BY BILL CLARK and TOM WILLIAMS
The Democrats outscored the Republicans to win Roll Call's 56th annual Congressional Baseball Game on Thursday by a score of 11-2. The game at Nationals Park went on in Washington, despite a shooting attack on the Republicans' practice the day before in Virginia that left the third-ranking GOP House member, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, in critical condition. Four others were also injured.
Here's the entire evening of the game in photos:
UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes hurt in truck-train collision
RAYMOND, Ill. — Former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes was injured Friday in a collision between a pickup truck and a train.
Illinois State Police said Hughes’ pickup was traveling on a road in central Illinois when the driver crossed railroad tracks marked with a warning. The truck was struck on the passenger side by the train.
The 43-year-old Hughes, who is from Hillsboro, Illinois, was airlifted to St. John’s Hospital in Springfield.
In a statement, the hospital reported a trauma team stabilized Hughes “and continues to help him in his recovery.”
Hughes is among the most accomplished welterweights in MMA history. The former All-American wrestler at Eastern Illinois became one of the UFC’s first major stars during MMA’s growth into a popular sport in the U.S.
The UFC Hall of Famer held the promotion’s 170-pound belt for two lengthy reigns between 2001 and 2006, making seven title defenses. Hughes hasn’t fought since 2011, but his career included victories over Georges St. Pierre, BJ Penn, Royce Gracie and Matt Serra.
He officially retired in 2013 after back-to-back knockout losses, and he joined the UFC’s front office as its vice president of athlete development and government relations.
Hughes’ job was eliminated by the UFC last year after the company was sold, and he recently hinted at an interest in a return to fighting.
UFC spokesman David Lockett said the promotion will respect Hughes’ family’s privacy and “keep Matt and his family in our prayers.”
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
DC Releases Unaired ‘Powerless’ Episode Featuring Adam West
DC has decided to release an unaired episode of NBC’s “Powerless” featuring the late Adam West.
DC announced on Twitter that West’s unaired episode would be available for a limited time through their DC All Access channel. It’s also available in its entirety on DC Entertainment’s YouTube channel.
“Powerless” was pulled from the air back in April with two episodes remaining unaired. One of them — titled “Win, Luthor, Draw” — featured the 1960’s Batman. West guest starred as Dean West, the chairman of Wayne Industries, who visits the team in Charm City to deliver some bad news.
There are nods throughout the episode to West’s iconic time spent as the Caped Crusader — specifically when West turns to the camera and delivers some ’60s Batman alliteration straight to the audience. “What will become of our little gang of scrappy underdogs? Will Bruce Wayne bail out our heroes, or will the treacherous Lex Luthor seek revenge?” he narrates near the end of the sitcom, spoofing how many episodes of the ’60s series ended.
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Despite boasting a strong cast including Vanessa Hudgens, Alan Tudyk, Danny Pudi, Ron Funches, and Christina Kirk, “Powerless” never found a large audience. Starting off with a decent 1.1 rating and 3.1 million viewers, the last episode only managed a 0.6 and 2 million viewers.
This wasn’t the only tribute to West. Earlier this week, the city of Los Angeles also honored the star by firing up the Bat Signal on the L.A. City Hall.
Alex Jones releases secretly-recorded audio clips with Megyn Kelly
ontroversial radio host Alex Jones released what he said is secretly-recorded audio of phone conversations with Megyn Kelly in an apparent attempt to discredit an upcoming broadcast of her interview with him as a “fraud” and a “hit piece.”
The InfoWars site host known for spouting provocative conspiracy theories, including that the 9/11 terror attacks involved the U.S. government, and questioning whether the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax, on Thursday released what he said are clips from conversations with Kelly prior to the taping of the interview that is scheduled to air Sunday evening.
Jones released the audio clips on his InfoWars website with accompanying text saying that he "has released recordings made during a pre-interview between himself and Megyn Kelly to set the record straight after the release of the highly edited promo for the NBC host's upcoming hit piece."
NBC News said Friday it will go ahead with Kelly's report on Jones despite what it said were his "efforts to distract and ultimately prevent" its airing.
The network said it remains "committed to giving viewers context and insight into a controversial and polarizing figure, how he relates to the president of the United States and influences others, and to getting this serious story right."
In the audio clips Jones released, he splices in his own commentary reflecting on his conversations with Kelly
He said he secretly recorded Kelly and that, in addition to the released audio clips, has a full recording of their entire unedited sit-down interview.
"I've never done this, but I knew it was a fraud, that it was a lie," Jones said of his interview with Kelly in a teaser video he posted on Twitter on Thursday ahead of his release of the clips.
“Megan Kelly waltzed in here to Austin, Texas, and told me that she wasn’t going to talk about Sandy Hook … she wasn’t going to talk about Islamic terror attacks, that she wanted to do a softball profile of Alex Jones,” he said in the video.
“She got here with her crew of intelligence operatives,” Jones said. “She did the opposite of what she said.”
He said, “We have a record of it so that you can decide for yourself what I really said and what I stood for.”
Asked for comment on Jones' statements, an NBC News spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the network's general statement about Jones and the interview.
Kelly’s interview with Jones has also sparked a backlash from parents of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre who have urged NBC not to give Jones airtime because he's theorized the shooting could have been a hoax.
In the audio released by Jones, he appears to walk back some of his previous comments about the shooting, saying, "In hindsight I think it probably did happen."
Kelly is heard in the audio suggesting to Jones that she would be fair to him in the interview.
"This is not going to be a contentious, 'gotcha' exchange" she said of the interview. "That's not what this show is and that's not what I want to do."
Minn. officer acquitted in shooting of Philando Castile during traffic stop, dismissed from police force
The Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Philando Castile during a traffic stop was acquitted on all charges by a jury Friday, a decision that came nearly a year after the encounter was partially streamed online to a rapt nation in the midst of a painful reckoning over shootings by law enforcement.
Officer Jeronimo Yanez pulled Castile’s car over in Falcon Heights, a suburb near Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the officer later said he thought Castile matched the description of a suspect in a robbery. The stop quickly escalated.
Yanez fired into the car, saying later he thought Castile was going for his gun, a claim Castile’s girlfriend, sitting in the seat next to him, disputed. She began streaming the aftermath of the shooting on Facebook Live.
Police officers are seldom charged for fatal on-duty shootings and convictions are even less common. Castile’s death came at a time of intense scrutiny of fatal police-involved shootings, and the viral video of his final moments spurred heated demonstrations that continued for weeks.
Outside the court, where a small group of protesters gathered Friday afternoon, Castile’s relatives denounced the jury’s decision. Castile’s mother called his death a murder and tied the verdict to what she described as systemic racism in Minnesota.
“The system cotinues to fail black people, and it will continue to fail you all,” Valerie Castile said, her anger building. “My son loved this city and this city killed my son. And the murderer gets away. Are you kidding me right now?”
Prosecutors charged Yanez with second-degree manslaughter in November, a felony, saying that “no reasonable officer” would have used deadly force in the same situation. He also was charged with two felony counts for intentionally discharging the gun. Jurors began deliberating Monday, and the verdict was announced Friday afternoon.
Gov. Mark Dayton (D) said the state continues to grieve with Castile’s family, calling his death “a terrible tragedy, with devastating consequences for everyone involved.”
On Friday evening, several hundred protesters amassed around the steps of the state Capitol in St. Paul to decry the verdict.
Officials in St. Anthony, Minn., where Yanez worked as a police officer, said he will not return to the police department from leave after the trial. They said they have decided “the public will be best served if Officer Yanez is no longer a police officer in our city.”
“The city intends to offer Officer Yanez a voluntary separation agreement to help him transition to another career other than being a St. Anthony officer,” the city said in a statement. “The terms of this agreement will be negotiated in the near future, so details are not available at this time. In the meantime, Officer Yanez will not return to active duty.”
Earl Gray, an attorney for Yanez, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the verdict and the city’s decision not to retain him as an officer. Speaking to reporters after he left the courthouse, Gray praised the jury’s decision.
“The verdict was a correct verdict,” he said. “In my opinion, the case should’ve never been charged.”
During the trial, jurors heard testimony from dozens of witnesses, including Yanez, who cried on the stand while saying he did not want to shoot Castile. Yanez testified that he thought his life was in danger at the time, and attorneys for Yanez have argued that Castile caused his own death because of his actions during the traffic stop.
astile was one of 963 people who police officers fatally shot last year, according to a Washington Post database tracking such shootings. The fatal encounter in Minnesota was among the most high-profile last year because Diamond Reynolds, Castile’s girlfriend, broadcast the moments after Castile’s shooting online, graphic footage that quickly circulated and drew international attention to the Twin Cities suburbs.
The shooting, on July 6, 2016, became part of an ongoing debate about how law enforcement officers use deadly force, particularly toward black men and boys, and it occurred during a particularly frenzied period that also saw a controversial police shooting in Baton Rouge and an ambush that killed five police officers in Dallas.
In Minnesota, Reynolds calmly documented what happened after Yanez shot Castile, 32, a popular cafeteria worker at a local school. She explained into her phone that Castile was licensed to carry a firearm, and that he had told the officer that before reaching for his wallet.
According to a complaint filed in Minnesota state court, police car audio and video recordings show that the gunfire erupted just a minute after Castile stopped his car.
Yanez approached the car window and asked Castile for his license and proof of insurance, which the driver handed over, the complaint states. Castile also told Yanez he had a firearm on him, and seconds later, the officer told the driver not to pull out the gun. Castile said he was not taking out the gun, which Reynolds echoed. Yanez screamed, “Don’t pull it out” and pulled his own gun out, firing seven shots at Castile, the complaint states.
The complaint then shifts to quoting from Reynolds’s Facebook video, saying that the footage “begins immediately after the shooting and while Yanez had his gun drawn and pointed toward the mortally wounded Castile.” Reynolds says in the footage that Castile was trying to get his ID out before the officer opened fire.
“Stay with me,” she said. She added: “They just killed my boyfriend.”
When Yanez spoke to state investigators a day after the shooting, he told them he was “in fear for my life and my partner’s life.” Yanez told them that he thought Castile was reaching for the gun.
“I thought I was gonna die,” he told investigators, according to the complaint.
Diamond Reynolds, the girlfriend of Philando Castile, arriving in court last week. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP)
Yanez and his partner, Officer Joseph Kauser, worked for the police force in St. Anthony, another city in the area. They were both considered model studentsbefore receiving their degrees in law enforcement in 2010. Both officers were put on leave after the shooting. Authorities did not charge Kauser, saying that he did not touch or remove his gun during the shooting.
During the trial, Kauser defended Yanez, his former partner.
“I think he followed protocol,” testified Kauser, who has since switched departments, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “I trust him as a partner, and he did what he’s supposed to do in that situation.”
Prosecutors also charged Yanez with endangering the lives of Reynolds and her 4-year-old daughter, who was also riding in the car that night. On Friday, Reynolds said she was “incredibly disappointed” with the verdict, saying that Castile cooperated and was stopped only because “he had a wide nose and looked like a suspect” to Yanez.
“It is a sad state of affairs when this type of criminal conduct is condoned simply because Yanez is a policeman,” she said in a statement released by her attorneys. “God help America.”
Jason Sole, president of the Minneapolis NAACP, called the outcome “more of the same.”
“How are you going to kill this guy and still say we have a fair system? How? Man, this behavior has gotta stop, and they can’t stop so they are going to continue to kill us,” Sole said outside the courthouse. “We haven’t progressed. … If you can kill me, with a baby in the back seat of a car, and get away with it, not guilty of any wrong doing? I can’t honor that system, and I won’t.”
John J. Choi, the Ramsey County attorney who brought the charges last year, said he is disappointed with the outcome, but he called on people who protest to do so peacefully.
“I can’t even imagine what this must feel like for the family of Philando Castile, his friends and all those that loved him,” Choi said. “And also for Diamond Reynolds. I’m just really sad for them.”
When he announced the charges last year, Choi said that “no reasonable officer … would have used deadly force under these circumstances.”
Speaking on Friday after the verdict was announced, Choi said he believes Yanez is a good person who made a mistake. But he maintained that nothing Castile did justified his death.
“The toughest part for me … is that he was so respectful in how he disclosed that he had that firearm,” Choi said. “He said sir, I have to tell you, I do have a firearm on me. He went beyond what the law requires. He was compliant. He wasn’t resisting.”
According to the complaint, one of Yanez’s bullets went through the driver’s seat and hit the back seat. Reynolds’s daughter was sitting in a car seat on the other side of the car. Another bullet hit the armrest between Castile and Reynolds, the complaint stated.
Yanez pulled over Castile after seeing him driving and saying he looked like a suspect in a convenience store robbery that had occurred days earlier. Authorities later said Castile was not a suspect in that robbery.
In a statement Friday, the St. Paul Public Schools system said they continued “to remember and mourn the loss of ‘Mr. Phil,'” calling him a beloved employee.
Castile was killed during an intense three-day eruption of violence last summer. A day earlier, an officer in Baton Rouge shot and killed Alton Sterling, another encounter captured on a video that quickly went viral. Castile’s death, like Sterling’s, set off protests across the country.
At one of these protests taking place a day after Castile was shot, a lone attacker in Dallas opened fire on police officers, killing five and wounding several othersin the deadliest single day for law enforcement since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The attacker in Dallas told police he was angered by the shootings of Castile and Sterling, authorities said.
Yanez was the first officer in Minnesota charged for an on-duty shooting since at least 2005, according to Philip M. Stinson, a criminologist at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, who studies arrests of officers and has kept data since that year. The Star Tribune newspaper reported that Yanez is believed to be the first officer charged with killing a civilian in the state’s modern history.
After the Castile verdict came out, Stinson said that of the 82 nonfederal law enforcement officers charged with murder or manslaughter for a fatal on-duty shooting, about a third — 29 officers — were convicted of a crime.
Most of those 29 officers who were found guilty on any count were convicted of a lesser offense, he said. Five of the 29 officers found guilty on at least one count were convicted of murder. Including Yanez, 33 officers were not convicted; Yanez is the 17th officer acquitted after a jury trial. Another 20 criminal cases are still pending, Stinson said.
Earlier this week, one of those cases — the trial of former Milwaukee police officer charged with homicide for a fatal shooting last year that set off violent unrest there — began unfolding in court.
Convictions in such cases are even rarer than prosecutions. In Baltimore, six police officers were charged in the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, but after three officers were found not guilty in separate trials, prosecutors last summer dropped charges against the remaining officers still facing trial.
Mistrials were declared last year in two other trials centered on high-profile police shootings that, like Castile’s death, followed traffic stops and included recordings that were widely shared.
In South Carolina, jurors deadlocked in the case of Michael Slager, a former police officer who fatally shot Walter Scott, a fleeing driver in North Charleston. State prosecutors had vowed to try him again, but Slager pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights charge this year, resolving both cases.
Jurors in Ohio also deadlocked during the first prosecution of Raymond Tensing, a former University of Cincinnati officer who shot Samuel DuBose during an off-campus stop. Prosecutors sought another trial, which beganearlier this month.
Jared Goyette in St. Paul contributed to this story, which was first published at 4:02 p.m. and has been updated with new information.
Further reading:
Michelle Carter Is Guilty of Manslaughter in Texting Suicide Case
TAUNTON, Mass. — A young woman who sent a barrage of text messages to another teenager urging him to kill himself was found guilty Friday of involuntary manslaughter in a case that many legal experts had expected to result in an acquittal.
The verdict, handed down by a judge in a nonjury trial, was a rare legal finding that, essentially, a person’s words alone can directly cause someone else’s suicide.
The judge, Lawrence Moniz, of Bristol County Juvenile Court in southeastern Massachusetts, said the conduct of the woman, Michelle Carter, toward Conrad Roy III was not only immoral but illegal. Ms. Carter, who faces up to 20 years in prison, will be sentenced on Aug. 3.
Ms. Carter was 17 in July 2014 when she encouraged Mr. Roy, 18, whom she called her boyfriend, to kill himself. On July 12, while she was miles away, he drove alone to a Kmart parking lot and hooked up a water pump that emitted carbon monoxide into the cab of his truck. When he became sick from the fumes and stepped out, prosecutors said, Ms. Carter ordered him by phone to “get back in.” He was found dead the next day.
Knowing that Mr. Roy was in his truck and in a toxic environment, the judge said, Ms. Carter took no action.
“She admits in subsequent texts that she did nothing, she did not call the police or Mr. Roy’s family,” Judge Moniz said. “And finally, she did not issue a simple additional instruction: ‘Get out of the truck.’”
The verdict came as a surprise to many legal experts, because suicide is generally considered, legally, to result from a person’s free will.
Judge Moniz acknowledged that Mr. Roy had taken steps to cause his own death, like researching suicide methods, obtaining a generator and then the water pump with which he ultimately poisoned himself. Indeed, Judge Moniz said that Ms. Carter’s text messages pressuring him to kill himself had not, on their own, caused his death.
But then, Judge Moniz homed in on the cellphone calls between Ms. Carter and Mr. Roy while he was poisoning himself in his car. At the time, he said, Mr. Roy had fearfully climbed out of the car.
“He breaks that chain of self-causation by exiting the vehicle,” Judge Moniz said. “He takes himself out of that toxic environment that it has become.”
Judge Moniz pointed out that, during previous suicide attempts in 2012, Mr. Roy had second thoughts and reached out to friends and family for help. But, the judge said, Mr. Roy did not get help when he talked with Ms. Carter.
“She instructed Mr. Roy to get back into the truck, well knowing his ambiguities, his fears, his concerns,” Judge Moniz said. “This court finds that instructing Mr. Roy to get back in the truck constituted wanton and reckless conduct, by Ms. Carter creating a situation where there is a high degree of likelihood that substantial harm will result to Mr. Roy.”
As he finished, Judge Moniz asked Ms. Carter, who was sobbing, to stand. He then concluded: “This court, having reviewed the evidence, finds you guilty on the indictment with involuntary manslaughter.”
A spectator let out an audible “wow” as the judge pronounced her guilty.
In the courtroom’s front benches, the two families on either side of the aisle — Ms. Carter’s and Mr. Roy’s — were also sobbing. Mr. Roy’s mother, Lynn, left the courtroom with a tissue in hand and a tight smile, while Ms. Carter rocked ever so slightly back and forth at the defense table, her chin in her hands.
In a brief statement, Conrad Roy Jr., Mr. Roy’s father, thanked the prosecutors and said: “This has been a very tough time for our family and we’d like to process this verdict, that we’re happy with.”
As he left the courthouse, Ms. Carter’s defense lawyer, Joseph P. Cataldo, said that he was “disappointed” in the verdict and that the case was “pending,” indicating a possible appeal.
Relying heavily on voluminous online correspondence, the trial exposed the interior lives of two troubled teenagers, putting their thoughts, their secrets and their rock-bottom self-images on display. Judge Moniz said both of their families had been “immutably changed” by the case, and as arguments closed on Tuesday, Mr. Roy’s family and Ms. Carter herself were left in tears.
The judge’s decision surprised many legal experts, who had said that, despite the callousness of Ms. Carter’s conduct, the case presented a stiff challenge to prosecutors because Massachusetts, unlike dozens of other states, has no law against encouraging suicide.
Moreover, Ms. Carter was not at the scene. To secure a conviction of involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors needed to show that Ms. Carter’s words alone, typed in thousands of text messages to Mr. Roy, were reckless and essentially killed him.Legal experts said the judge might have wanted to convey to Massachusetts lawmakers that they needed to pass laws to hold people accountable for their online conduct.
“This sends a strong message to people that using technology to bully people into committing suicide will not be tolerated,” said Daniel S. Medwed, a law professor at Northeastern University.
But Mr. Medwed said he was surprised at the guilty verdict, because the manslaughter charge seemed “a stretch” to begin with. Because Ms. Carter was not at the scene, and Mr. Roy ultimately acted alone, he said, it was difficult to prove she “caused” the death.
“We don’t see this every day,” said Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. She said that the decision by a single court in Massachusetts was unlikely to set a legal precedent, but that it could have a social effect.
“On the broader societal spectrum, I think it sends a message that behavior that we sometimes attribute to odd teenage behavior can actually be so extreme that it’s homicide,” she said.
“What used to be seen as just a tragedy,” she added, “is now going to be classified, perhaps, as a crime.”
The virtual nature of Ms. Carter’s role was not a barrier for the judge. And his verdict signaled that the law might need to catch up with cultural and behavioral changes wrought by technology.
A prosecutor made that very point in arguing that Ms. Carter’s physical absence from the suicide scene was immaterial.
In a trial that lasted a week, prosecutors used Ms. Carter’s text messages to paint a portrait of a needy, insecure teenager who pushed Mr. Roy to kill himself in an effort to gain attention. Defense lawyers used the same messages to depict Ms. Carter as a misguided teenager, addled by medication, who thought she was helping a deeply troubled friend.
Ms. Carter and Mr. Roy texted incessantly about their troubles: depression for him, an eating disorder for her, and profound social anxiety for both. When Mr. Roy told Ms. Carter in June 2014 that he was seriously considering suicide, she told him he had a lot to live for and urged him to seek help.
“I’m trying my best to dig you out,” Ms. Carter wrote.
“I don’t wanna be dug out,” Mr. Roy answered, adding later, “I WANT TO DIE.”
By early July, she began to embrace the idea. “If this is the only way you think you’re gonna be happy, heaven will welcome you with open arms,” she wrote.
Ms. Carter said she would look like a “fool” if Mr. Roy did not kill himself. They talked at length about how he could kill himself with carbon monoxide. “If you emit 3200 ppm of it for five to ten mins you will die within a half hour,” she wrote. In the last days of his life, she told him repeatedly, “You just need to do it.”
With such texts projected onto large screens in the courtroom, there was no question that Ms. Carter had encouraged Mr. Roy to kill himself. The lawyers argued instead about motive.
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