#I LOVE YOU NOW DIE TRIAL#
#I LOVE YOU NOW DIE TV#

Organisations who can offer support include Samaritans on 116 123 ( ) or Mind on 03 ( ). We would encourage anyone who identifies with the topics raised in this article to reach out. I Love You, Now Die is currently available to watch on HBO, Sky Crime and Now TV. That shouldn't be confused with justification but accepted for what it is: a necessary procedure that provides food for thought about which narratives take centre stage in the true-crime genre. The documentary tackles her actions in unflinching detail, but its scope also dedicates significant attention to analysing Michelle's mental state and, crucially, attempting to understand why she did what she did. Jesse pointed out that on one level, you had 'a kid that's going to kill himself' and on another, Michelle's delusions. Michelle would quote dialogue from the show in her texts to Conrad, but she would write them as if they were her own words. Ryan Murphy's Gleeand one of its stars, Lea Michele, were a central focus for her.

#I LOVE YOU NOW DIE TV#

He described her behaviour as an 'eerie inability to fully comprehend reality' and referenced Michelle's infatuation with TV shows, movies and songs which fed into her 'romantic fantasy'. Journalist Jesse Baron, who featured in the documentary and wrote the feature about the case for Esquire, also echoed Lynn's sentiment about Michelle's disconnect with the real world. HBO/Sky We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article. So how can you be that angry, or how you can you be that. 'She lived in some kind of fantasy, I think. 'She didn't live in reality,' said Lynn Roy, Conrad's mother.

But in I Love You, Now Die, the image is of someone much less sinister. In the tabloid press, she was a black widow, calculating and dangerous. She suffered from bulimia and was taking antidepressants, and not only had Michelle spent time in a psychiatric hospital, she had also spoken about having suicidal thoughts. Michelle would regularly seek validation from those same people, expressing her unhappiness with herself and her life. She would repeatedly ask people at school if they wanted to hang out, to which they would often say that they were busy. Despite Conrad's mental state prior to meeting her, the effects of Michelle's rhetoric could only have been destructive.īut in the documentary, Michelle isn't presented as a villain but a sad, lonely young woman who felt friendless and unloved. The language she uses is difficult to stomach, and some of her messages cause the viewer to audibly gasp. What the documentary also manages to do is paint a nuanced and at-times challenging picture of victimhood, one that certainly clashes with any preconceptions you might have about Michelle before watching it. The Commonwealth v Michelle Carter was described as 'unprecedented' by Michelle's lawyers and the reaction to both the original case and I Love You, Now Die is evidence that the public, too, remains invested in the extraordinary events and divided by the guilty verdict. Judge Lawrence Moniz based his decision on the fact that had Michelle not instructed him to climb back inside the truck, Conrad would have lived. Conrad briefly left the vehicle before, according to Michelle, she told him to get back inside. Records show that the pair were talking on the phone while the truck was filling up with carbon monoxide. The court document reads as follows: 'As the defendant herself explained, and we repeat due to its importance, ' death is my fault like honestly I could have stopped him I was on the phone with him and he got out of the because it was working and he got scared and I f**king told him to get back in…because I knew he would do it all over again the next day and I couldn't have him live the way he was living anymore I couldn't do it I wouldn't let him'.'

#I LOVE YOU NOW DIE TRIAL#

To them, it was a moral issue, rather than a legal one.īut despite the shocking nature of those texts, it wasn't her messages to Conrad that convinced the judge to find her guilty – Michelle waived her right to a trial by jury. But others, while agreeing that what Michelle had done was depraved and cruel, didn't believe that she had broken the law.

Some believed that she was responsible and her words caused his death. This was new territory.īefore the verdict was announced, the documentary featured several locals who shared their opinions about whether Michelle should be held accountable for Conrad's suicide. Not only were people disturbed by what they were confronted with when the news hit headlines across the world, they had never come across anything like it.

I love you now die