Michelle Carter Case Back In Court After Conrad Roy Texting Suicide Trial

The case against the young woman who urged her boyfriend to commit suicide made its way back into court Monday, more than two weeks after it concluded. Michelle Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the 2014 death of her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III. The judge gave Carter, now 20, a split sentence Aug. 3 of two and a half years behind bars and probation.

Following the sentencing, Carter was allowed to leave with her family pending an appeal. But the Massachusetts Probation Department requested the sentencing be brought back to court for clarification. The probation office said it was confusing because the law made it unclear whether the court was able to stay only part of the split sentence, according to WFXT. The department hoped to clear up the confusion in Monday's hearing.

During the high-profile trial, the prosecution brought forth thousands of text messages in which Carter pushed Roy toward suicide. In some, she listed the ways he could take his own life. In others, she expressed frustration that he hadn't done it yet. In what proved to be the nail in the coffin for Carter's fate, the prosecution presented evidence that she had told Roy to "get back in" his truck and finish his suicide when he had second thoughts.

Carter's trial and sentencing proved contentious: a lack of sufficient precedent meant the court had to decide whether it was possible to cause someone's death with text messages. After she was ultimately convicted of the crime, Roy's family thought 20 years in prison would be appropriate, while Carter's father pleaded with the judge for leniency.

"Take away the spotlight she so desperately craves," Roy's aunt, Kim Bozzi, said in a statement before sentencing. "Twenty years may seem extreme, but it is still twenty more than Conrad will ever have."

Her father also put forth his own statement to the judge.

"She will forever live with what she has done and I know will be a better person because of it," David Carter wrote in a July letter. "I ask of you to invoke leniency in your decision-making process for my loving child Michelle."

The court of public opinion, meanwhile, had conflicting opinions about the conviction and sentencing. Infamous exoneree Amanda Knox wrote in an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times that Carter deserved "sympathy and help, not prison."

"Involuntary manslaughter is when a drunk driver crashes into another vehicle, when a gunman shoots at tin cans in his suburban backyard, when a carnival operator fails to ensure that all passengers are strapped in and as a result an innocent person dies," Knox wrote. "Encouraging our boyfriend to follow through with his own death should not qualify. Carter may not be innocent in a moral or philosophical sense, but she was wrongfully convicted."

For Roy's family, they just want the whole thing over and done with.

"We want to put it past us," his mother said an interview with "48 Hours" earlier this month. "We want to move on. Best way we can."