Woman accused of texting boyfriend instructions to kill himself begins trial

Michelle Carter, now 20, opted to allow the judge to hear the testimony and decide her fate on an involuntary manslaughter charge in connection with the suicide death of her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III.

Jury selection was expected to start Monday and was expected to take about a week, according to court officials.

"The theme of those text messages can be summed up in the phrase used by the defendant four times between July 11 and July 12, 2014: 'You just [have] to do it, '" the state's court said in a ruling a year ago. The 18-year-old was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in his pickup truck in Fairhaven. He's also said Roy was depressed and previously tried to take his own life.

Conrad Roy of MA killed himself on July 12, 2014, according to Buzzfeed News.

Carter's lawyer has said the texts are protected free speech.

CNN has reached out for comment from Carter's legal team but has not heard back.

On a blustery winter's day several years ago, shortly after Michelle Carter was formally charged with involuntary manslaughter, Conrad's mother, Lynn, recalled how the girl who stole her son's heart seemed to hover around her in those summer days after her son's suicide. There is no law in MA that says verbal encouragement of suicide is a crime.

Carter and Roy met in 2011, and the two teens who lived in separate towns primarily communicated through texts and phone calls.

Carter, now 20, argues that Roy put the idea of suicide into her head and convinced her to "endorse his plan". Police say he used a combustion engine to fill the cabin with carbon monoxide.

At 6:28 p.m., he called Carter and talked to her for 43 minutes.

"Ultimately it was Conrad Roy alone in the vehicle who killed himself, while she was miles away with her phone", Daniel Medwed, a professor of law and criminal justice at Northeastern University School of Law said.

Roy had just been accepted into college at the time of his death, but had been suffering from depression for some time.

Carter: If you don't think about it, you won't think about failing.