But who is Michelle Carter-and where is she today?

In 2017, when Carter was 17 years old, she faced charges of involuntary manslaughter for the role she played in the suicide of her boyfriend, 19-year-old Conrad Roy. At the time of Roys death on July 12, 2014, Carter was at her home miles away, but prosecutors argued her texts and phone calls encouraged Roy to take his own life.

Ultimately, the case centered on the legal question of whether an individuals words could hold him or her responsible for anothers resulting actions. As it turns out, they can-at least in Carter's case. Today, Michelle Carter is in prison, per NBC News .

Meanwhile, her lawyers are prepping an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court mere days before the case is thrust back into the national spotlight with the premiere of the two-part HBO documentary on July 9 and 10 at 8 p.m. ET.

Before Carter was imprisoned, she was a teenager who claimed to be in love.

Carter met Roy in 2012 while on vacation with their families in Florida. Both had struggled with their mental health, and both had attended therapy and counseling, according to The Cut .

The pair lived about two hours apart from each other in Massachusetts, and much of their long-distance relationship consisted of phone calls, emails, and texts.

It was the texts and, more importantly, phone calls between Carter and Roy that led to her indictment for involuntary manslaughter in February 2015, per MassLive . Carters lawyers battled for over a year for the charges to be dismissed, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled the state could move forward. The case went to trial-with Carter pleading not guilty-in June 2017.

During Carter's defense, a psychiatrist testified that her actions were a result of "involuntary intoxication" from prescription antidepressants:

During the trial, Carters text history with Roy seemed like it would be the most damaging evidence against her.

While messages showed that she'd previously encouraged Roy to try professional therapy again, during the weeks leading up to Roys eventual death, she discussed suicide, laid out for him how he should do it, and, according to prosecutors, asked him when he was going to kill himself more than 40 times.

"Its probably the best time now because everyones sleeping," she wrote to him, per court documents . "Just go somewhere in your truck. And no ones really out right now because its an awkward time...If u dont do it now youre never gonna do it."

But it was a phone call that sealed Carter's fate.

On the night that Roy died in a Kmart parking lot by inhaling carbon monoxide produced by a water pump in his truck, Carter was in almost constant contact with Roy and "talked him out of his doubts point by point," prosecutors argued. The turning point came when Roy got out of his truck and called Carter-she allegedly urged him to get back in.

The phone call was never recorded, so it's unknown whether that conversation transpired the way Carter later claimed it had.

Still, in texts to her friends, she acknowledged the role she played in Roys death. "I helped ease him into it and told him it was okay, I was talking to him on the phone when he did it I could have easily stopped him or called the police but I didn't," she wrote to her friend Sam Boardman, according to .

Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz found Carter guilty and sentenced her to two and a half years in prison-but she will serve a reduced 15-month prison term. Carters specific instruction to Roy allegedly telling him to return to his car on the night of his death constituted "wanton and reckless conduct." He further noted that she alerted neither Roys family nor local authorities to his actions even though she knew Roy intended to take his own life.

Despite the guilty verdict, Carter didn't immediately go to prison.

She was allowed to remain out on bail during the initial appeals process, but, after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled not to overturn her conviction on February 6, 2019, Moniz ordered Carter-now 22-to begin her sentence at the Bristol County Jail and House of Correction. Carters lawyers have vowed to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Just before Carter appeared in court in February, Roys aunt Becki Maki told the media there were "no winners" in this case, according to NBC News .

"Its a tragedy," she said. "And we just want an end to it."

That end may come when Carter finishes serving her sentence in May 2020, or, if her lawyers succeed in their appeal, the case may be reopened. Regardless of the outcome, Michelle Carter's trial is sure to be reexamined by the public after the new HBO documentary I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter -featuring new interviews from Roy's family and Carter's lawyers-premieres on July 9.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline .