The manslaughter-by-text prosecutions of Inyoung You and Michelle Carter effectively frame the accused women as manipulators with witch-like powers over men, critics say.

The thought is that women are cunning and malicious and dont really murder by strength. It harkens back to witch caricatures and sirens, said Boston-based writer Susan Zalkind. The Carter case felt like a bit of a witch trial. Theres a really risk of those beliefs infecting the criminal court.

Zalkind recently wrote a piece for Vicewith the thesis that these cases run the risk of drawing upon peoples images of devious women, like those who kill by poison or deceit in Sherlock Holmes or Game of Thrones.

Nancy Gertner, a retired Massachusetts federal judge whos working on Carters appeal, told Zalkind for the story, Thats the part of this that is interesting to me, is the notion of causation: the notion that these women were somehow putting a spell on the men so that the men were doing what they would otherwise not have done. Thats antithetical to most gender stereotypes, though it certainly is a caricature: the witch caricature.

You, a 21-year-old former Boston College student, will be arraigned Friday morning on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the May death of her boyfriend, Alexander Urtula. Prosecutors say she set him hundreds of texts a day, including many telling him to kill himself until he jumped to his death in front of her.

The case has strong similarities to the high-profile prosecution of Michelle Carter, who was convicted in 2017 of involuntary manslaughter for urging Conrad Roy III to commit suicide through texts she sent as a 17-year-old in Plainville. Carters serving a 15-month prison sentence and continues to appeal her case, now to the Supreme Court.

Boston attorney Wendy Murphy pushed back on the witch notion, saying, these are not gendered cases.

This isnt about the gender of the person sending the text its the intensity of the messages, Murphy told the Herald.

She said she expects men to be prosecuted in similar cases in the future. Carters conviction was controversial, but Murphy said she believes these prosecutions are important.

You want to use the strongest tools you can, and thats the criminal-justice system, Murphy said. Youre talking about the death of a human being caused by human behavior that too many people think is harmless.

Zalkinds piece noted that no men have been accused in similar cases in Massachusetts yet.

Prosecutors are essentially saying that these women were able to control the minds of these young men using words alone, Zalkind said. Thats what a spell is she was able to utter certain words and make them commit certain actions.

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You, Carter cases draw on witch stereotypes of women, critics say - Boston Herald