Jury Finds Spying in Rutgers Dorm Was a Hate Crime

[Divine Discontent]

Source: AP

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A former Rutgers University student was convicted on Friday on all 15 charges he had faced for using a webcam to spy on his roommate having sex with another man, a verdict poised to broaden the definition of hate crimes in an era when laws have not kept up with evolving technology.

“It’s a watershed moment, because it says youth is not immunity,” said Marcellus A. McRae, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice.

The student, Dharun Ravi, had sent out Twitter and text messages encouraging others to watch. His roommate, Tyler Clementi, jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge three days after the webcam viewing, three weeks into their freshman year in September 2010.

The case set off a debate about whether hate-crime statutes are the best way to deal with bullying. While Mr. Ravi was not charged with Mr. Clementi’s death, some legal experts argued that he was being punished for it, and that this would result only in ruining another young life. They, along with Mr. Ravi’s lawyers, had argued that the case was criminalizing simple boorish behavior.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/nyregion/defendant-guilty-in-rutgers-case.html

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The prosecutor said that the jury, "felt the pain of Tyler".
:cry:


I am so glad they did what was right, and thank them for feeling his pain. Thank God. I am so sick of Gay people being abused. This hopefully will send shockwaves around America that it's not okay to disparage and bully GLBT people to the point of no return. Tyler had a bright future ahead of him, but he had done to him things none of us would want, and with the judgment of a large portion of society being anti-Gay, this was a watershed moment for justice, and, for Tyler, some respect for his dignity!

[No Elephants]

1. Of course it was a hate crime. He never would have done any of this if

his roommate had asked for privacy in order to be with a female.

Besides, one of his tweets said something about getting rid of gays.

After the suicide, he tried to hide/destroy evidence.

He turned down a plea bargain that would have given him no time in jail. That would be zero. (I would have been livid if he'd been given no time in jail and I did not even know the deceased. let alone give birth to him.)

Turned it down cold, even though he knew he had tampered with evidence, which accounted for a few of the counts of which he was convicted.

I have no sympathy.