Dharun Ravi convicted of hate crime: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/nyregion/defendant-guilty-in-rutgers-case.html
No good outcomes in this case. I can't feel any sense of satisfaction that Dharun got what was coming - he seems to have been a jerk, but many of us have been jerks or unthinking at some point in our lives, and learned from it, rather than having to face prison. I think Dharun's legal advice was bad, or his advisors made a bad calculation. He was offered a deal for pleading guilty, which would allow for light sentencing and some help in avoiding deportation which may have been an important factor for him (he was born in Indian and didn't become a US citizen). The girl who was charged with him took the deal, but he didn't and I think this may have stuck in the throats of the jury - he may not deserve all that he will get now, but he didn't deserve to walk quite free, as he would have if he had won. I wonder what the role of his parents was in this. Shri, in his excellent piece on Dharun and Ravi (meaning the son and the father) wondered what role unthinking homophobia, or a refusal to talk about sex issues of any kind, let alone homosexuality in people of Dharun's parents generation might have played in shaping Dharun's attitudes. I also wonder if the parents felt they could get Dharun to walk free. I hope this case is a wake-up call to desi parents in the US, and maybe even in India too, about how the need to have frank, unembarassed and unprejudiced discussions on sex and sexuality with your kids is so important. I wish they might be like friends of mine who brought their 5 year old daughter to the first Pride march in Mumbai and matter of factly explained to her about the lgbt people around her. A piece from the Guardian looking at the complex aspects of this case: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/mar/16/tyler-clementi-dharun-ravi-hate-crime?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
