Article snippet: TAUNTON, Mass. — Michelle Carter, the Massachusetts woman convicted in June of involuntary manslaughter for encouraging a close friend, through text messages and phone calls, to commit suicide, was sentenced on Thursday to 15 months in a county jail. Ms. Carter was 17 in 2014 when the friend, Conrad Roy III, who was 18, poisoned himself with carbon monoxide in his truck. She could have been sentenced to as much as 20 years in prison. The judge sentenced her to two and a half years in a county jail, but suspended 15 of those months. Then, at the request of Ms. Carter’s lawyers, the judge stayed the sentence while an appeal goes through the state courts, which could take several months or a few years and means that Ms. Carter will not immediately go to jail. “This court must and has considered a balancing between rehabilitation, the promise that that rehabilitation would work and a punishment for the actions that have occurred,” Judge Lawrence Moniz of Bristol County Juvenile Court said, announcing the sentence in a crowded courtroom. As the court adjourned, Ms. Carter, now 20, stood, puffed up her cheeks and exhaled deeply, visibly relieved that this stage was over. She left for home, under orders not to use social media or to profit from attention on the case. Her lawyer, Joseph P. Cataldo, told reporters that he would appeal her conviction within 30 days. “This is a tragedy,” he said. “It is not, however, a crime. Conrad Roy took his own life.” Prosecutors, who ... Link to the full article to read more