Amanda Knox: Michelle Carter Should Get Sympathy, Not Jail Time
LOS ANGELES (CBS) – Amanda Knox is weighing in on the controversial teen texting suicide case in Massachusetts.
Knox spent about four years in prison, convicted in the high-profile murder of her roommate in Italy, before the decision was overturned.
In an op-ed for The Los Angeles Times, Knox writes that she's been following the case of Michelle Carter and believes she was "wrongfully convicted" of involuntary manslaughter.
Carter was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison Thursday. As a 17-year-old, she repeatedly encouraged her 18-year-old boyfriend Conrad Roy to kill himself and to "get back in" to a truck filled with carbon monoxide.
"Involuntary manslaughter is when a drunk driver crashes into another vehicle. . . Encouraging your boyfriend to follow through with his own death wish should not qualify," Knox writes.
She goes on to say that the media tried to paint her as a "femme fatale" during her murder trial, and writes that prosecutors tried to do the same with Carter.
Knox is worried that shouldering Carter with the blame for Roy's death could cause her to hurt herself.
"Just because it's hard to feel sympathy and understanding, that doesn't mean it isn't the right – and just – thing to do," Knox writes. "Conrad Roy III needed our sympathy and our help and didn't get it in time. Michelle Carter deserves the same sympathy and help now."
The judge ordered a stay on his sentence for Carter, meaning she won't have to go to prison until her case is appealed.
Read the full op-ed here.