Dharun Ravi has had his trial in the spotlight since the suicide of Tyler Clementi, because of Ravi’s spying. Â He was found guilty and is now facing up to 10 years for the webcam encounter back in 2010. Â This case has been nothing less of controversial since it involved so many complicated subjects like discrimination against sexuality, suicide, gay rights etc. Â Hit the jump to read why some don’t want him to be punished too badly.
Steph Bassanini
Dharun Ravi will be sentenced Monday for spying on his college roommate with a webcam and tweeting about seeing him in an intimate encounter with another man.
A New Jersey judge could sentence Ravi to up to 10 years for the most serious charges related to bullying Tyler Clementi at Rutgers University in September 2010.
Clementi, 18, committed suicide by jumping from the George Washington Bridge days after learning that Ravi wrote on Twitter about seeing him kiss a man in their dorm room.
Prosecutors didn’t charge Ravi, now 20, with causing Clementi’s death, but they hit him with a 15-count indictment, including invasion of privacy, bias intimidation and tampering with evidence. A jury convicted Ravi on all charges in March.
Almost two years later, there have been mounting calls for leniency on Ravi. His defenders say giving him a long prison sentence would be an unfair punishment for what was immature behavior, but not an intentional hate crime.
Depending on the Judge Glenn Berman’s expected decision in Superior Court, Ravi could be deported to India. A sentence of more than one year makes it likely that federal immigration officials would push to expel him, the Associated Press reported.
The Middlesex County Prosecutors office filed paperwork on May 10 with the court, saying Ravi should be imprisoned, because he “shows no remorse”, but doesn’t deserve the maximum sentence.
The defense team earlier this month sought to overturn the conviction, because they argued the hate crime law was misapplied to the case.
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