Freedom of speech argument made in suicide text case.

[SavannahMann]

We probably all remember the odd story out of Massachusetts where a woman was convicted of sending texts to her boyfriend encouraging him to kill himsef. At the time I assumed it was a stunt trial, but lo and behold they got a guilty verdict. I wasn’t sure how they were going to enforce this principle in law. I mean, some dolt climbs out on a building ledge, and the crowd starts shouting jump, do the cops arrest everyone in the crowd ignoring the jumper? Or do the cops only arrest the crowd after the guy jumps?

Mass. Teen Who Urged Boyfriend to Kill Himself in Texts Says It Was Free Speech, Not Crime

The appeal is filed, and the argument is that the young woman, Michelle Carter has freedom of speech. And you know what, she’s right. People have for my entire life have told others to kill themselves. Any album from Lewis Black has at least half a dozen examples of it. If someone blows their brains out, and they find an album in the iTunes playlist that has Lewis telling him to make sure that you get your entire head in front of the shotgun, is that murder or manslaughter?

Was it outrageous? Yes. Was it disturbing? Yes. Liable? Maybe. Make your argument on that one. Was it criminal? No. Freedom of speech takes precedence gang. Michelle may be a heartless waste of flesh, but I don’t think what she did is criminal.

 

[WillowTree]

It was criminal!

 

[JakeStarkey]

Ewercorrect.

 

[SavannahMann]

It was criminal!

So is it just criminal to send text messages, or does the crowd shouting jump to a person on a ledge also commit a crime? Where do we draw the line?

 

[Slashsnake]

We probably all remember the odd story out of Massachusetts where a woman was convicted of sending texts to her boyfriend encouraging him to kill himsef. At the time I assumed it was a stunt trial, but lo and behold they got a guilty verdict. I wasn’t sure how they were going to enforce this principle in law. I mean, some dolt climbs out on a building ledge, and the crowd starts shouting jump, do the cops arrest everyone in the crowd ignoring the jumper? Or do the cops only arrest the crowd after the guy jumps?

Mass. Teen Who Urged Boyfriend to Kill Himself in Texts Says It Was Free Speech, Not Crime

The appeal is filed, and the argument is that the young woman, Michelle Carter has freedom of speech. And you know what, she’s right. People have for my entire life have told others to kill themselves. Any album from Lewis Black has at least half a dozen examples of it. If someone blows their brains out, and they find an album in the iTunes playlist that has Lewis telling him to make sure that you get your entire head in front of the shotgun, is that murder or manslaughter?

Was it outrageous? Yes. Was it disturbing? Yes. Liable? Maybe. Make your argument on that one. Was it criminal? No. Freedom of speech takes precedence gang. Michelle may be a heartless waste of flesh, but I don’t think what she did is criminal.

Freedom of speech is not absolute. You can't just flip a judge off or call them a fuck head in front of everyone, because you'll end up with a contempt of court charge (in jail). While I agree that you should be able to call a judge an asshole without punishment (because many of them are pieces of shit with too much power), it's just not the way the system works.

Freedom of speech does not apply in situations where harm is intended or a threat to harm exists. In the Massachusetts case, the girlfriend had mens rea and tried to harm her boyfriend by sending him texts, "egging him on to commit suicide," which shortly afterwards, he then ended up killing himself. When interpreting freedom of speech, we should also remember to protect those who cannot protect themselves, including, but not limited to handicapped people and people who are not the correct mental state to look out for themselves (which clearly existed in this case).

So with that said, freedom of speech does not exist here. Her lawyer must be a first day on the job law intern.

 

[Slashsnake]

It was criminal!

So is it just criminal to send text messages, or does the crowd shouting jump to a person on a ledge also commit a crime? Where do we draw the line?

Groups of people within a protest can be arrested for disturbing the peace and other crimes.

Groups of people who "egg someone on" to die (basically) by jumping off of a building need some psychological help. I don't know how a one person, yet alone a group of people, could stand there and tell someone to jump off a building while the person is standing on the edge considering it. 99.9% of the people out there wouldn't have enough of a lack of heart to do such a thing. We would have to consider a guilty with insanity plea for those kinds of people.

 

[SavannahMann]

It was criminal!

So is it just criminal to send text messages, or does the crowd shouting jump to a person on a ledge also commit a crime? Where do we draw the line?

Groups of people within a protest can be arrested for disturbing the peace and other crimes.

Groups of people who "egg someone on" to die (basically) by jumping off of a building need some psychological help. I don't know how a one person, yet alone a group of people, could stand there and tell someone to jump off a building while the person is standing on the edge considering it. 99.9% of the people out there wouldn't have enough of a lack of heart to do such a thing. We would have to consider a guilty with insanity plea for those kinds of people.

Yeah. People yell it. Why Bridge Jumper Was Taunted

It happens in about half the cases. There have even been studies about it. The baiting crowd in episodes of threatened suicide. - PubMed - NCBI

No mention of any of the onlookers and cheering people being arrested. Onlookers Cheer, Tape, Tweet Suicide Jumper's Last Moments