A jury found Dharun Ravi guilty of bias intimidation against his gay roommate, Tyler Clementi. Clementi killed himself after learning that Rhavi had used a webcam to watch him kissing another man.
Ravi was also found guilty of tampering with evidence because he tried to delete incriminating Twitter and Facebook messages. He has not yet been sentenced, but may receive up to 10 years in prison–or be deported back to his native India. From the New York Times:
What the jury had to decide, and what set off debate outside as well as inside the courtroom, was what Mr. Ravi and Mr. Clementi were thinking at the time.
Did Mr. Ravi set up the webcam because he had a pretty good idea that he would see Mr. Clementi in an intimate moment? Did he target Mr. Clementi and the man he was with because they were gay? And was Mr. Clementi in fear?
Without Mr. Clementi to speak for himself, that last question was perhaps the most difficult to determine, and questions the jurors sent from their deliberation room suggested they struggled with it.
The guilty verdict means Ravi and his lawyers made a serious mistake in not taking an offered plea deal that would have required no jail time.
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