You have probably heard about the Massachusetts texting suicide case that has recently been heavily covered by the national media. Here, Michelle Carter was accused of persuading her boyfriend, via text, to kill himself. On June 16,2017, Fox News reported that Michelle Carter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for her actions that led to her boyfriend’s death.
If this case was a Florida case, not a Massachusetts case, would Michelle Carter be affected by Florida’s Slayer Statute? What if Carter’s boyfriend left her a million dollar house in a Florida will or West Palm Beach trust? Could she still inherit from her boyfriend’s estate even though she persuaded him to kill himself? Florida’s Slayer Statute says that if a person unlawfully kills someone, intentionally kills someone, or merely participates in procuring the death of someone, that person is NOT entitled to any benefits under the Florida will or trust of the victim. Here, Carter most definitely participated in the procuring of her boyfriend’s death. To find out more information about this, read Florida Statute 732.802, which is Florida’s Slayer Statute.
732.802 Killer not entitled to receive property or other benefits by reason of victim’s death.—
(1) A surviving person who unlawfully and intentionally kills or participates in procuring the death of the decedent is not entitled to any benefits under the will or under the Florida Probate Code, and the estate of the decedent passes as if the killer had predeceased the decedent. Property appointed by the will of the decedent to or for the benefit of the killer passes as if the killer had predeceased the decedent.
(2) Any joint tenant who unlawfully and intentionally kills another joint tenant thereby effects a severance of the interest of the decedent so that the share of the decedent passes as the decedent’s property and the killer has no rights by survivorship. This provision applies to joint tenancies with right of survivorship and tenancies by the entirety in real and personal property; joint and multiple-party accounts in banks, savings and loan associations, credit unions, and other institutions; and any other form of coownership with survivorship incidents.
(3) A named beneficiary of a bond, life insurance policy, or other contractual arrangement who unlawfully and intentionally kills the principal obligee or the person upon whose life the policy is issued is not entitled to any benefit under the bond, policy, or other contractual arrangement; and it becomes payable as though the killer had predeceased the decedent.
(4) Any other acquisition of property or interest by the killer, including a life estate in homestead property, shall be treated in accordance with the principles of this section.
(5) A final judgment of conviction of murder in any degree is conclusive for purposes of this section. In the absence of a conviction of murder in any degree, the court may determine by the greater weight of the evidence whether the killing was unlawful and intentional for purposes of this section.
(6) This section does not affect the rights of any person who, before rights under this section have been adjudicated, purchases from the killer for value and without notice property which the killer would have acquired except for this section, but the killer is liable for the amount of the proceeds or the value of the property. Any insurance company, bank, or other obligor making payment according to the terms of its policy or obligation is not liable by reason of this section unless prior to payment it has received at its home office or principal address written notice of a claim under this section.