Is enticing someone to commit suicide a crime?

[snickers57]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Mississippi
A very dear friend of mine ended her own life yesterday. Her husband has been very mean to her for years now. He has another woman and she knew it. I went to her home as soon as I heard about her death. The husband showed no grief, only worried about the fact that everything they have is in her name. While my boyfriend and I were there, he told us that they had been drinking heavily the night before but they were getting along fine. He said he went to bed and when he got up the next morning she had destroyed his phone. He also said that he went in to wake her up and gave her a lot of verbal abuse about the phone then he took her phone because he had to have one for work. He admitted to us that he knew something more was wrong with her more than just being drunk. He said he knew she had taken pills and he told her to just go ahead and take the rest of them. Then he left and went to work. She was found dead later that afternoon and had been dead for several hours. Should I contact the police with this information? I have always heard that it is a crime to tell some one to go kill themselves. Thank you for your time.

[JETX]

Originally Posted by snickers57

Should I contact the police with this information?

Based on your post, I doubt that anything would come from it, but yes. You have no idea whether the police have suspicions or not and your information might help them in deciding how, or if, to pursue the matter.

[Proserpina]

Originally Posted by snickers57

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Mississippi
A very dear friend of mine ended her own life yesterday. Her husband has been very mean to her for years now. He has another woman and she knew it. I went to her home as soon as I heard about her death. The husband showed no grief, only worried about the fact that everything they have is in her name. While my boyfriend and I were there, he told us that they had been drinking heavily the night before but they were getting along fine. He said he went to bed and when he got up the next morning she had destroyed his phone. He also said that he went in to wake her up and gave her a lot of verbal abuse about the phone then he took her phone because he had to have one for work. He admitted to us that he knew something more was wrong with her more than just being drunk. He said he knew she had taken pills and he told her to just go ahead and take the rest of them. Then he left and went to work. She was found dead later that afternoon and had been dead for several hours. Should I contact the police with this information? I have always heard that it is a crime to tell some one to go kill themselves. Thank you for your time.

What the husband may or may not have shown, in terms of emotion yesterday just isn't going to be a fair depiction of how he really feels....I'd be astonished if his demeanor at that time was held against him.

Grief is an incredibly volatile and unpredictable animal - the day after my late husband passed I went to the ICU where he had once had surgery and took him a puzzle book. Sure, on one level I knew he had died, but the shock was far too raw and new to think even vaguely coherently. Even seeing him there in the bedroom didn't really sink in until much, much later (I'm talking at least a couple of weeks)

Whether or not the man is guilty of anything remains to be seen - but I would give him a certain amount of latitude at the moment; if nothing else he does have the right to grieve in his own way.

(I realize none of this is legal advice and I do apologize for that, but I have been widowed and can vouch for the utter surreality of the situation...more often than not you're not acting normally, you're not conversing normally, heck you're not even thinking normally!)