About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

56 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 65 (2019)
The Puzzle of Inciting Suicide

handle is hein.journals/amcrimlr56 and id is 70 raw text is: THE PUZZLE OF INCITING SUICIDE Guyora Binder* and Luis Chiesa** ABSTRACT In 2017, a Massachusetts court convicted Michelle Carter of manslaughter for encouraging the suicide of Conrad Roy by text message, but imposed a sentence of only fifteen months. The conviction was unprecedented in imposing homicide liability for verbal encouragement of apparently voluntary suicide. Yet if Carter killed, her purpose that Roy die arguably merited liability for murder and a much longer sentence. This Article argues that our ambivalence about whether and how much to punish Carter reflects suicide's dual character as both a harm to be pre- vented and a choice to be respected. As such, the Carter case requires us to choose between competing conceptions of criminal law, one utilitarian and one libertar- ian. A utilitarian criminal law seeks to punish inciting suicide to reduce harm. A libertarian criminal law, on the other hand, justifies voluntary suicide as an exer- cise of liberty, and incitement of suicide as valuable speech. Utilitarian values are implicit in the foreseeability standards prevailing in the law of causation, but lib- ertarian values are implicit in the reluctance of prosecutors to seek, and legisla- tures to define, homicide liability for assisting suicide. The prevalence of statutes punishing assisting--but not encouraging-suicide as a nonhomicide offense reflects a compromise between these values. These statutes are best interpreted as imposing accomplice liability for conduct left unpunished for two antithetical rea- sons: it is justified in so far as the suicide is autonomous and excused in so far as the suicide is involuntary. This explains why aiding suicide is punished, but less severely than homicide. Yet even these statutes would not punish Carter's conduct of encouragement alone. Her conviction although seemingly required by prevail- ing causation doctrine, is unprecedented. INTRODUCTION Should the criminal law punish inciting suicide? And if so, as homicide, or as some lesser crime? In 2014, 18-year-old Conrad Roy committed suicide, two years after a previ- ous unsuccessful attempt.1 Police soon discovered that in the preceding week, * SUNY Distinguished Professor, Hodgson Russ Fellow and Vice Dean for Research, University at Buffalo School of Law. Thanks to George Fletcher, Diego Navarrete, Robert Weisberg, participants at workshops at UB and Columbia. Able research assistance was provided by Ian Adelstein-Herrmann and Kristian Klepes. Oc 2018, Guyora Binder & Luis Chiesa. ** Professor of Law and Director of the Buffalo Criminal Law Center, University at Buffalo School of Law. 1. Commonwealth v. Carter, 52 N.E.3d 1054, 1056 57 (Mass. 2016).

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most