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Hate Crime Charges Less Likely In Clementi Case
By
Jaya Saxena
Published Oct 5, 2010
Modified Oct 5, 2010
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By
Jaya Saxena
Published Oct 5, 2010
Modified Oct 5, 2010
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Though investigators are still looking into it, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan says there may not be enough evidence in the Tyler Clementi suicide case to charge Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei with hate crimes. Ravi and Wei are charged with multiple counts of invasion of privacy after allegedly sharing footage of Clementi engaged in a sexual encounter with another man and allegedly planning to do it a second time, but there is little evidence that would prove they would not have done the same had they found him with a woman. "Sometimes the laws don’t always adequately address the situation," Kaplan said. "That may come to pass here."
At Sunday's vigil for Clementi, many students expressed their anger that hate crime charges had not yet been filed. "I don’t think five years is enough for the cost of someone’s life," said one student. However, as law professor Orin S. Kerr previously said, "The important thing is for the prosecution to follow the law," and the state should punish Ravi and Wei based on what they did, "not what the victim did in response."
Friends of Ravi and Wei are also coming to their defense, saying they made a stupid decision, but it was not fueled by hatred or homophobia. Friend Michael Zhuang described Ravi as "very, very open-minded," while Jeremiah Ward said, "I definitely don’t think it was a hate crime." If the two are charged with bias crimes, they will face up to 10 years in prison, instead of the five years they face for the invasion of privacy charges.
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dharun ravi
hate crime
invasion of privacy
molly wei
rutgers suicide
tyler clementi
Jaya Saxena
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