20 year old jailed for 15 months for encouraging a friend to commit suicide

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/defendant-who-texted-teen-to-commit-suicide-ordered-to-serve-15-months/

by mcfrankline • 9 years ago

17 15 9 years ago

vijayr• 9 years ago

Moniz, who said he balanced rehabilitation and punishment when formulating his sentence, called the case "a tragedy for two families."

Maybe, but only one of them lost a child :(

valuearb• 9 years ago

It's not a tragedy for one of the families if you let her off scott free.

mcfrankline2• 9 years ago

I wouldn't term it scott free in this case. That girl is forever going to be haunted by this and society will probably never forget to remind her every once in a while

CodeWriter23• 9 years ago

Assuming she's not a psychopath, excuse me, I mean someone suffering from antisocial personality disorder.

dhdjdnnnebrbr4• 9 years ago

She'll only be haunted by the fact that she got caught.

wolco• 9 years ago

She was 17 at the same time happened.

He doesn't want to do it but she keeps telling him he has to do it now. This is either a murder and/or accessory to a murder or not a crime at all and a suicide happened.

It can't be both a suicide and a murder.

dhdjdnnnebrbr4• 9 years ago

Sure it can. If you tell someone to commit murder and they do, you are guilty of murder as well. No reason it couldn't be true for suicide.

xyzzy42• 9 years ago

I would have voted not guilty if I was on that jury. Seems like the First Amendment should protect your right to give advice.

jdmichal• 9 years ago

Leave it to Ars to have a comment section that's actually got some decent stuff in there. I think this one directly applies to your comment. After all, what is fraud other than giving people bad advice on investing?

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/defendant-who-te...

"People scam other consenting adults out of large quantities of money every day, using nothing but the power of speech. We criminalize that and call it 'Fraud'. Why would the same type of action, when it results in death, be treated any differently?"

xyzzy42• 9 years ago

Well during fraud someone is being misled with false statements, so the victims don't know they will lose money until it's too late. In this case on the other hand, the guy knew he would die when he took his own life.

AcerbicZero• 9 years ago

I'm not sure I would go that far as I think she pushed beyond the bounds of pure free speech, but overall I agree with the sentence.

It seems to me if you can be talked into killing yourself, the person talking you into it can't be held entirely responsible. Obviously he was dealing with pre-existing problems, but in the end he made his own decision.

dhdjdnnnebrbr4• 9 years ago

She's not being held entirely responsible, she's being held partially responsible. If she was held entirely responsible she would have gotten life without parole.

dhdjdnnnebrbr4• 9 years ago

A criminal trial jury in the United States does not vote. It deliberates to a unanimous verdict.

20 year old jailed for 15 months for encouraging a friend to commit suicide

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