Dharun Ravi sentenced to jail in Rutgers webcam case
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By Tina Susman
A judge Monday sentenced a former Rutgers University student, Dharun Ravi, to 30 days in jail for spying on his gay roommate who later committed suicide, rejecting defense arguments that he did not deserve time behind bars but disappointing prosecutors who portrayed him as insensitive and driven by anti-gay bias.
Ravi, who is now 20, had faced 10 years in prison after being convicted last March of invasion of privacy, witness tampering, tampering of evidence, and the hate crime of bias intimidation. He was also sentenced to 300 hours of community service.
The jury had concluded that Ravi had targeted his roommate, Tyler Clementi, because Clementi was gay, and the bias-crime status virtually guaranteed he would get some prison time.
2 comments:
I see in the NY Times article written previous to sentencing that some gay rights advocates were against jail time for various reasons. This sentence looks like an attempt to balance the issues; a little jail time, a lot of community service.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it actually feels fair, as long as the jail time doesn't mean he gets deported. I hope the community service involves educating others about homophobia. I know I was sorta hotheaded about this, but scapegoating him does let other kinds of homophobia off the hook, kinds that Tyler Clementi no doubt suffered from too.
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