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52 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 731 (2018-2019)
The Innocent Villain: Involuntary Manslaughter by Text

handle is hein.journals/umijlr52 and id is 755 raw text is: THE INNOCENT VILLAIN: INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER BY TEXT Charles Adside III* Michelle Carter's texts instructing her mentally ill online boyfriend to commit suicide offended the social moral code. But the law does not categorize all morally reprehensible behavior as criminal. Commonwealth v. Carter is unprecedented in manslaughter law because Carter was convicted on the theory that she was virtually present as opposed to physically present-at the crime scene. The court's reasoning is expansive, as the framework it employs is excessively vague and does not provide fair notice to the public of which actions constitute involuntary manslaughter. Disturbingly, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the trial court's logic. This Article concludes that a conviction based upon a virtual-presence theory is unconstitutional, as it is void-for-vagueness. Hypotheticals are provided to illustrate how the Carter framework is unworkable when applied to online relationships based on electronic communications. State legislatures, not courts, should regulate this area, providing clear rules on when electronic encouragement of suicide violates the law. States can consider a physical-presence requirement and prohibit prosecutions on this basis. Or, legislators can borrow from aiding and abetting principles to expand their special relationship statutes to include online relationships, creating a duty to report when encouraging another to commit suicide. In either case, the law will provide citizens with bright-line rules to forecast when electronic conduct is subject to criminal sanction. * Instructor, Department of Political Science, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; General Counsel, Michigan Great Lakes Second Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, Church of God in Christ, Inc.; J.D., Michigan State University College of Law; B.A., University of Michigan- Ann Arbor. I am grateful to my mother, Jacqueline J. Adside, the Supervisor of Women for myJurisdiction, who encouraged me to write on this pressing issue. I thank my father, Rev. Charles Adside, Jr., and other family members, such as my grandmother, Lovie D.Johnson, and my uncles and aunts, Paul and Kim Minor and Romie and Laurie Minor. I received in- spiration from my spiritual family at Greater Shiloh Church of God in Christ in Ypsilanti, MI. Bishop Dwight E. Walls, Sr., is the pastor, and Mignon N. Walls is the first lady. Jamie Bircoll gave me insightful comments. This Article would not have been written without the contributions from dedicated research assistants. I am proud of them all. Mohamad Zawah- ra and Jacob M. Kraus served as my senior research assistant and project manager respective- ly. Christian Villanueva and William Weiner conducted extensive research projects. Joseph Levy did groundwork for this Article over the summer of 2018. Gabriel Slater and Blake Timmerman served as manuscript editors. I also thank the following men of 1209 South State Street who encouraged my research assistants and nursed me during my health diffi- culties: Kigoma Govan, Jonathan Guzman, Daniel Park, Matthew Pike, and Michael Wein- hold. No words can express my.gratitude to them. Lastly, the completion of this Article would not have been possible without the guidance and motivation of my mentor in the law, Professor Mae Kuykendall. 731

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