Editorial: There’s no excuse to delay passage of ‘Conrad’s Law’

It doesn’t seem possible that, with the plethora of publicity surrounding the coercion-assisted suicide of Massachusetts teen Conrad Roy back in 2014, this state would still remain one of the few that hasn’t passed a criminal statute covering such a crime.

But that’s the case, despite the efforts of Andover state Sen. Barry Finegold and Leominster state Rep. Natalie Higgins.

Finegold, whose district includes Dracut, Lawrence and Tewksbury, renewed his push to criminalize suicide coercion last week, when he was joined by Roy’s mother in urging the Joint Committee on the Judiciary to support a bill that would create that long overdue criminal charge.

Currently, Massachusetts is one of only eight states without a statute explicitly criminalizing coercion of suicide.

Finegold was one several legislators who introduced what became known as “Conrad’s Law” in 2019, which would have made intentionally encouraging or enabling a suicide attempt punishable by up to five years in prison.

Conrad Roy died by suicide after repeated encouragement from his girlfriend, Michelle Carter.

Carter served just over a year of her 15-month sentence on a charge of involuntary manslaughter for her role in Roy’s death and received a nearly four-month early release for good behavior, a decision that incensed Roy’s loved ones.

The bill’s introduction came just a month after a grand jury indicted former Boston College student Inyoung You on involuntary manslaughter charges for allegedly encouraging her BC boyfriend, Alexander Urtula, to take his own life.

While the bill garnered considerable public support at the time, it ultimately stalled in the Legislature in the early months of 2020, which Finegold attributed to the emergence of the coronavirus.

“It just got caught up, but I do think that it has a good chance to pass this time around,” Finegold told the newspaper in January.

Finegold said he hopes to have a hearing on it as early as this summer.

Democrats Finegold and Higgins, who reintroduced the bill in late March, along with Conrad’s mother, Lynn Roy, told the committee last week that by supporting it they would help close an important gap in Massachusetts laws.

“The only tool in the DA’s toolkit right now is manslaughter, which comes with a sentence of up to 20 years,” Higgins said. “We really wanted to make sure that Massachusetts has a criminal code that’s narrowly tailored and it’s very clear that coerced suicide is something that we want to deter in our communities.”

Lynn Roy, who Finegold said has played a key role in drafting and advocating for the bill, added, “if this law can save one life, one soul, one family from the harshest pain, then we have all succeeded.”

We endorsed this bill when it was initially filed and do so again.

This legislation would not apply to any unintentional consequences from bullying, negligence or jokes. Individuals could only face charges if they knew or had cause to know someone had expressed suicidal thoughts, and then knowingly suggested suicide.

The lack of a law addressing this issue leaves the commonwealth — and a victim’s family — vulnerable to sweeping interpretations of First Amendment protections.

Carter’s defense team built its case on First Amendment, free-speech grounds, which was also the basis for its appeal of Carter’s 2017 conviction and prison sentence.

With no law in place, her conviction could have easily been reversed. Fortunately, the Supreme Judicial Court upheld her guilty verdict.

But a case with slightly different circumstances could have rendered a different verdict or SJC opinion.

Having such a law on the books would certainly lend a clarity that currently doesn’t exist.

With COVID-19 behind us, we see no reason why lawmakers wouldn’t support this common-sense legislation, which would send a clear message to anyone contemplating convincing an emotionally vulnerable individual to take their own life.