Two years ago, Boston College student Alexander Urtula killed himself by jumping off a parking garage in Boston after facing a barrage of hostile text messages from his girlfriend, fellow BC student Inyoung You. Even though a Suffolk County grand jury indicted You for manslaughter shortly after Urtula's death, the case still has not gone to trial and likely it won't any time soon. Daniel Medwed, GBH News legal analyst and Northeastern University law professor, joined host Henry Santoro on Morning Edition to talk about the case. This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
Henry Santoro: Dan, this is a very serious case, and it was all over the papers and the news when it happened. Evidently, this case is now being reviewed by our highest court, the SJC. What is the cause of delay here? I know it often takes a while for things to get to trial, but this seems particularly long.
Daniel Medwed: I think you're right, Henry, and the cause for this delay is largely attributable to the outcome and aftermath of a pretrial motion filed by the defense. So, here's what happened: The defendant, Inyoung You, moved to dismiss the indictment. She claimed that it was based on legally unsound principles and interfered with her First Amendment rights to free speech. The trial judge issued a mixed ruling on that motion. She prevented the prosecution from proceeding under one theory of guilt — the idea that Inyoung You should have called 911 once she realized her boyfriend was suicidal, that that was deemed to be an inappropriate basis for liability.
But the trial judge agreed with the prosecution with respect to another theory and basically paved the way forward, the theory being that Inyoung You's text messages basically caused or contributed to the suicide. So, because it was a split decision, Henry, neither side was happy, and they both appealed it to the SJC.
Santoro: She pummeled him with text messages — thousands over the course of a day. She actually she went back to Korea, correct?
Medwed: She may have — she was summoned back to the U.S. and I believe she's currently here.
Santoro: How unusual is it for the SJC to review a case at such an early stage?
Medwed: Well, it's certainly not the typical trajectory. On the one hand, the usual criminal case, of course, goes through the trial court. Let's assume there's a conviction. The defendant might then appeal it to the intermediate appeals court here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts appeals court, and then if they lose there, they could seek further review from the SJC. That's the ordinary pass, right?
On the other hand, there are a number of peculiar procedures in place that can allow you to bypass that route and go straight to the SJC. One of them is on display here. When you lose a preliminary ruling like this that is really necessary for you to go forward in the case, you can file what's called an interlocutory appeal, get the SJC to review it and essentially bypass the entire typical hierarchical structure.
"This case resembles the Michelle Carter prosecution in so many ways."-Daniel Medwed, GBH News Legal Analyst
Santoro: Let's assume the SJC upholds the lower court decision and the case does in fact go to trial. Do you think the government has a pretty good shot of securing a conviction?
Medwed: I think it's a bit unclear. And of course, this case resembles the Michelle Carter prosecution in so many ways from a few years ago. Here are some of the chief hurdles, and they're hurdles that prosecutors faced in the Carter case as well: The first one is that the prosecutors have to show that Inyoung You acted recklessly. Did she consciously disregard a substantial and unjustifiable risk that her text messages would cause Urtula to commit suicide? And given the complexity and toxicity of this relationship — Henry, you mentioned thousands of text messages. Apparently, they exchanged 1,250 text messages a day on average in the two months running up to this. So given the complexity of the relationship, it might be a little bit difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she consciously disregarded this huge risk because he hadn't committed suicide as of yet in their year-plus long relationship.
The second hurdle is something known as causation. You have to show that Inyoung You caused his death. And the prosecution will say yes, she caused his death. The defense is going to say, well, he was alone by himself at the parking garage at the moment he took his life. He's an autonomous person with agency. She didn't cause it. So it's going to be a really interesting case if it ever gets to trial.
Santoro: Rather. We will stay tuned. And if it does go to trial, we will get you right back on to talk about what the next steps are.
