Murder or Not?
Tyerell Przybycien, a teen being charged with first-degree murder, could be faced with up to 15 years in prison as a minimum. The teen encouraged fellow teen Jchandra Brown to take her own life, and proceeded to record the tragedy and even provided commentary as he filmed her last moments.
Currently in Utah, assisted suicide is not a crime, and courts found reasonable belief that Przybycien's 'conduct meets elements of murder' therefore the case is being tried for first-degree murder
On May 5th, Brown hung herself at a campground in Utah, her 'friend' Przybycien is said to have helped her by buying the rope, and tying the noose as Brown placed it around her neck. Prosecutors argue that Brown would have not have killed herself, if Przybycien had not had any involvement. The defence insist that the charge against Tyerell Prxybycien are too extreme and maintain the idea that it was only Brown who killed herself. However both sides agree that Przybycien was involved and hold some responsibility for Browns suicide.
Text messages found between Przybycien and an another friend, shows that Przybycien asked this friend for advice on what do about Brown having suicidal thoughts, the anonomous friend replied that they would talk the suicidal person out of it, to which Przybycien replied "The thing is.. I wanna help kill them. It be awesome. Seriously im going to help her. It's like getting away with murder! Im so f****** up. I'm seriously not joking. It's going down in about a week or two.". Furthermore, on the day of the fatal incident, Pryzybycien messaged the same friend and told them that "it happened" and he "helped her do it too and [he] feels so guilty". (CNN)
In my not-so-professional opinion, commenting on Przybycien's statement that he is 'f***** up', I would argue he is a bit more than 'f***** up' and maybe need psychiatric help. I side with the prosecutors with the argument that Przybycien ultimately hold responsibility for the suicide of Jchandra Brown, as although he called her a friend, he did nothing in order to save her life and only encouraged her action- even going as far as buying equipment for her. The fact that Przybycien had the audacity to record and sadistically provide commentary on the event makes the case worse as he clearly had no hesitation or second thought into actually trying to save her, and only though of himself and how "awesome" it would be to "get away with murder".
Ignoring Przybycien's horrendous actions, this case highlights the issue of mental health and suicide as amongst teens, suicide is rising and little seems to helping this crisis. Currently, Utah has the highest level of teen suicide rate in USA, and the rate of people aged between 10-17 has tripled since 2007 (Utah Department of Health). More help and support needs to be available and open to all populations of the world- especially young people and men, to try and prevent more cases similar to this, and suicide in general, from happening in the future.
Reference
Ignoring Przybycien's horrendous actions, this case highlights the issue of mental health and suicide as amongst teens, suicide is rising and little seems to helping this crisis. Currently, Utah has the highest level of teen suicide rate in USA, and the rate of people aged between 10-17 has tripled since 2007 (Utah Department of Health). More help and support needs to be available and open to all populations of the world- especially young people and men, to try and prevent more cases similar to this, and suicide in general, from happening in the future.
Reference
Willingham, AJ. (2017). She took her life, but he's accused of helping her and filming it. Is it murder?. Available: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/20/us/tyerell-przybycien-jchandra-brown-suicide-murder-utah-trnd/index.html. Last accessed 23rd Oct 2017.
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