Speech Crime

USA Today - Suicide texting case sets bad precedent, experts say.

CNN - The text messages that led up to teen's suicide.

A 17 year old girl got regular text messages from her boyfriend where he said he was going to kill himself. At first she tried to get him to go to therapy and much later told him to just do it. He did. He killed himself. She was charged with murder and ended up getting two and a half years for involuntary manslaughter.

Murder by speech. Murder by text message? It was not murder, it was not manslaughter. It was suicide. My wife left me for another man and took everything I had. I did not commit suicide, though I was quite ready to die. Even Jim Jones actually put a gun to people's heads to make them drink the Koolaid. Please tell me, was she responsible for not stopping him. She didn't bring up the idea, he did. I guess she wasn't a very good psychologist at 17. Maybe she was a really dumb child; but, she was still a child. She is now paying for his sin, not hers.

Tell me you have never wished someone dead. Tell me you have never told another to just die or wished that they would. We are going to charge you for the air you breath, a carbon tax. And, we are going to hold you guilty for bad thoughts and bad words, hate speech. Do you think that slaves wished their masters dead? The most oppressive slavery starts by outlawing words and then thoughts.