Charles Krupa/AP/ShutterstockMichelle Carter was released from prison at around 9:30 a.m. on Thursday.
The Bristol County Sheriff's Department told E! News Carter was picked up by her parents and her attorney. The 23-year-old Massachusetts woman walked out wearing the same clothes she arrived in.
"I am very pleased she is home," Carter's attorney told E! News. "Future legal plans will be announced in due course."
According to the sheriff's department's public information officer, staff members who saw Carter this morning said she was a little nervous with all of the media gathered outside; however, they noted she was very thankful to the staff and said goodbye to the inmates and officers in the women's center.
Carter was originally sentenced to 15 months in prison. However, she was released after serving less than a year behind bars.
Last week, Jonathan Darling—a spokesman for the sheriff's office—told E! News Carter was tentatively set to be released on Jan. 23. due to good behavior.
"Good behavior means a number of things–inmates can earn up to 10 days every month off their sentence for doing things like attending programs, having a job inside the jail, not fighting with other inmates or staff or not causing any trouble. It's called good behavior," Darling told E! News at the time. "Michelle has earned enough time off her sentence to be able to end her sentence on January 23rd. She's attended programs, she's had a job, she's been polite to our staff and volunteers and she gets along with the inmates. There have been no disciplinary problems with her whatsoever and she's been a model inmate in here at Bristol County. [As for her job], she was working in the kitchen serving meals. She wasn't involved in the cooking, but she was serving the food."
According to NBC News, Carter was convicted in 2017 of involuntary manslaughter in the death of her boyfriend Conrad Roy III. Roy died by suicide after he filled the inside of his car with poisonous fumes in 2014. Per the news outlet, Carter had encouraged Roy to kill himself through text messages. At one point, Roy had climbed out of the vehicle and had expressed reservations about killing himself. However, Carter texted a friend that she had told Roy to "get back in" his pickup truck.
Both Carter and Roy battled with depression.
Carter was sentenced in 2017 but didn't start serving time behind bars until February 2019—after the Massachusetts Supreme Court denied her appeal.
"The U.S. Supreme Court decision not to hear the appeal and her release today brings closure," Roy's aunt, Becky Maki, told E! News in a family statement. "It's been a long six years and we are ready to move on. While we are disappointed that she was not required to serve her full sentence it doesn't change that Conrad is forever gone. We will continue to remember and honor him and efforts to raise awareness for suicide prevention."
Carter's case was followed in HBO's I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth vs. Michelle Carter.