Even US states have limits to free speech

[Ming]

If I said Hitler was a sociopath what does it matter?

As usual... now you try to change the subject.
It doesn't change the fact that you use the term sociopath incorrectly when you "try" to use it as an insult for those that disagree with you.
The good news is, we all laugh at you when you do. Just another example of your poor comprehension skills.

[Kidlicious]

As usual... now you try to change the subject.
It doesn't change the fact that you use the term sociopath incorrectly when you "try" to use it as an insult for those that disagree with you.
The good news is, we all laugh at you when you do. Just another example of your poor comprehension skills.

I actually disagree with Hitler's beliefs.

[rah]

If you post enough different crap, eventually you'll get something right.
Your percentage of correctness ends up pretty pathetic though.

[Lorizael]

I actually disagree with Hitler's beliefs.

Brave.

[Elok]

Brave.

Specifically, he disagrees that smoking is bad for you. What did you think he meant?

[Aeson]

Or maybe he thinks the average person shouldn't be able to afford an automobile.

[KrazyHorse]

Ignoring kiddy, this seems like a bad decision. Massachusetts lacks an assisted suicide statute and without this it seems hard to justify. The key element is whether here is whether you can "cause" another person to do something simply by suggesting that they do so. Given that he was an adult in at least some control of his faculties and aware of the consequences of his actions this seems questionable to say the least.

Hopefully this is overturned on appeal.

None of this is to suggest that she isn't an evil **** of course.

[Proteus_MST]

I agree that it is a thin line.

On the other hand I would see this case as special, especially as it seems to be clear beyond reasonable doubt that at one time during his gassing Roy exited the car and want to cancel his suicide attempt ... and that it was Michells convincing that brought him back into the car (and his ultimate death) ... and that it is most likely that, without Michelles convincing, he would have survived the suicide attempt (by stopping it)

So, IMHO it goes beyond other cases of assisted suicide (where people help the suicidals to procure the means for their suicide and she is much more directly involved in his death (and perhaps one might also argue that she abused his vulnerable psychological condition in order to get him to do something he actually didn't want to do (i.e. reenter the car and succesfully finish his suicide))

[Kidlicious]

Ignoring kiddy, this seems like a bad decision. Massachusetts lacks an assisted suicide statute and without this it seems hard to justify. The key element is whether here is whether you can "cause" another person to do something simply by suggesting that they do so. Given that he was an adult in at least some control of his faculties and aware of the consequences of his actions this seems questionable to say the least.

Hopefully this is overturned on appeal.

None of this is to suggest that she isn't an evil **** of course.

She didn't just suggest that he kill himself. He was mentally ill. If you psychologically manipulated a crazy person into killing people like Charles Manson did then you would be criminally responsible. So why isn't she responsible?

[KrazyHorse]

Charles Manson isn't in jail because he psychologically manipulated people, kiddy. He's in jail because he engaged in a conspiracy and planning to commit murder, and as the head of an organization ordered those murders to be undertaken by people under us authority. In this case both conspirators to the crime as well as the people who committed the crime are equally guilty. The victims were the unaffiliated third parties who were killed.

The very big difference in this case is that she was not tried for "conspiracy to commit suicide" (assuming suicide is even a crime in Massachussets). The only "victim" in this case was the person who died. This seems like an enormous stretch of the legal framework - one that removes agency on the part of the "victim". Except in cases where the victim is mentally incompetent (and I don't believe that suicide is a necessary indicator of this) I don't believe we should be using existing statutes like this.

[giblets]

***** deserved jail. Justice has been served.

[Elok]

I'm not convinced of that. In all fairness, what she did doesn't sound like manslaughter, unless you posit that being persuasive towards an evil end makes your speech somehow weaponized. Which is not a can of worms I'd care to open, as free speech is under enough assault already. This may be one of the cases where a relevant law wasn't on the books so you have to bite the bullet and let a guilty person go rather than prosecute ex post facto or distort the law to engineer a guilty verdict. I imagine the family could still hit her with one hell of a civil suit--though I doubt she has any money--and at any rate, I'm not convinced the girl's own mental health is all that good.

EDIT: her Wiki entry says she's a possible cutter, on psych meds (nature undisclosed, could be simple Xanax or some hardcore stuff like quetiapine), had an eating disorder at age eight and attended counseling at a psychiatric hospital. So, yeah, there's something going on there, but who knows what.

[Kidlicious]

She also has a Martian head.

[Berzerker]

I'm a bit surprised they didn't do it together