The Dharun Ravi – Tyler Clementi case was decided. I’ve written about this case before. Today, sentence was handed down.
The 20-year-old former Rutgers University student convicted of a bias crime against his roommate who soon after committed suicide was sentenced to 30 days in jail by a New Jersey judge on Monday.
Dharun Ravi had been found guilty of charges including bias intimidation, invasion of privacy, hindering apprehension and tampering with evidence after the death of Tyler Clementi just three weeks into their first semester of college. The 18-year-old freshman jumped off of New York City‘s George Washington Bridge after realizing Ravi had set up a video camera to record a sexual encounter between himself and another man, who was never identified during the trial.
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In addition to his sentence, Ravi will be on probation for thee years, must serve 300 hours of community service and attend a cyberbullying counseling program, and has to pay a $10,000 recessment to the New Jersey probation department, which will go toward programs that help people who are victims of bias crimes.
Ravi also faced deportation to his native India, from which he immigrated with his parents when he was four, but Berman recommended against it.
Both prosecutors and the defense have said they would appeal and Berman granted a stay of the sentence for 10 days upon the prosecution’s request.
As you can imagine, the ignorami who only know about the case based on what they’ve heard are screaming blue murder. But I think this was the right decision. Ravi is not responsible for Clementi’s death. Punish him for the crimes he committed, but don’t ruin his life.
