Yes, the jury convicted Mr Ravi, but go back and read Mr Parker’s account and decide for yourself whether his acts were malicious efforts to intimidate or self-serving grabs for attention from an immature audience. Even if the latter, Mr Ravi might still have transgressed the state’s bias intimidation laws, but then one must ask if it was appropriate for prosecutors, using their discretion, to bring such charges on acts of this nature.
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The Rutgers spying case: Harsh judgment | The Economist
As he sat in the courtroom, his chin propped awkwardly on his fist, his predicament could be seen either as a state’s admirably muscular response to the abusive treatment of a vulnerable young man or as an attempt to criminalize teen-age odiousness by using statutes aimed at people more easily recognizable as hate-mongers and perverts.
In related news, John Demjanjuk, convicted last year for his role in killing 28,000 Jews at a Nazi death camp during World War II, died on Saturday aged 91 in a care home in southern Germany, police said.
Posted March 17, 2012 at 2:19pm in hate crime criminal bias Demjanjuk rutgers dharun ravi tyler clementi human rights gay homosexual jew antisemitism homophobia
