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Rutgers Student Ravi Convicted of Bias Intimidation and Spying
In 2010, Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi used his computer's webcam to spy on the activities of his gay roommate, Tyler Clementi, and commented about it publicly on Twitter. Days later, Clementi committed suicide. Ravi was indicted on 15 charges, going to trial last month. Now, reader doston sends word that the trial has ended, and Ravi has been found guilty on all 15 charges, though the jury returned a not guilty verdict on aspects of certain charges.
"After less than three full days of deliberations, the five men and seven women of the jury found Dharun Ravi, 20 years old, guilty of invading the privacy of his 18-year-old roommate, Tyler Clementi, and his dorm-room date. They also found that Ravi was motivated by bias under a New Jersey hate-crime law that had been largely untested so far. ... The jury had been asked to decide Ravi’s motivations when he trained his webcam on Clementi and his date on two separate occasions in September 2010, in a case that set off a national conversation about cyber-bullying and treatment of gay youth. ... Ravi faces up to 10 years in prison on most serious bias intimidation convictions, but is likely to receive a lesser sentence based on sentencing guidelines because he is a first time offender. The India-born Ravi, who has spent most of his life in the U.S. as a permanent resident, faces the possibility of deportation as a result of his criminal conviction. He rejected a plea deal in December that would have kept him out of prison and offered him assistance with immigration authorities."
The theory of "Hate Crime" was introduced to combat people with a shared belief system looking the other way. It was very hard to fight the KKK during the 20s because so much of the local police forces were members. The feds needed new tools to take them down.
Certain segments of society have special protections over other segments of society because, historically, certain segments of society have special animosity coupled with power over other segments of society.
If you steal a stop sign and someone who was also speeding crashes, you are probably guilty of manslaughter.
This poor kid was obviously very troubled, but if you look at the totality of his communications, he was obviously pushed over the edge by this Ravi asshole. If Ravi hadn't have been such a colossal jerk, the kid would still be alive. He only started thinking of suicide AFTER he started getting harassed.
If he was robbing a bank when a guard pulled a gun, he couldn't shoot the guard and claim self defense. He broke the law and as a result someone is dead. Is it murder?
In the case of the robbery, this would be first degree murder. As I understand it, a number of states also consider deaths caused in pursuance of a crime to be "aggravating circumstances" and could subject the person in question to a death sentence. This is very different from the current crime, but I imagine the jury and judge might have treated the suicide as an aggravating circumstance, say with respect to sentencing.
Moving on, I am concerned that Ravi was tried on various "hate crime" related charges. There really isn't a place for these in a democratic society. The social or physical characteristics of the victim shouldn't matter for the most part.
Actually, there is no evidence of this. Moreover, from the New Yorker article on the case, a few weeks back, I learned that Clementi had taken a "tour" of the bridges around the NYC area weeks before leaving for Rutgers. It's reasonable to believe he may have been harboring conflicting thoughts concerning suicide before he ever met Ravi.
quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.
I think you could make a point without sending someone to prison for ten years...
From TFA: "He rejected a plea deal in December that would have kept him out of prison and offered him assistance with immigration authorities."
He clearly could have avoided doing time. Instead, he and his lawyer tried to argue that (from this article): "He hasn't lived long enough to have any experience with homosexuality or gays," attorney Steven Altman said in closing arguments this week. "He doesn't know anything about it. He just graduated high school."
Evidently the jury didn't find it very convincing.
Ravi faces up to 10 years in prison on most serious bias intimidation convictions, but is likely to receive a lesser sentence
Ravi might be a douchebucket, but he is not responsible for clementi's choice to take his life.
Looks like the prosecutor and the courts agreed with you. He isn't being charged with the kid's death.
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