Dharun Ravi sentenced to 30 days in prison for spying on his roommate

The sentencing of Dharun Ravi in May 2012 brought to a close a legal proceeding that had become one of the most discussed cases at the intersection of cyberbullying, privacy, and anti-gay harassment in recent American history — though the outcome satisfied almost no one completely.

Ravi, then a student at Rutgers University, had used a webcam to spy on his roommate Tyler Clementi in September 2010 during an intimate encounter with another man, had invited others to watch via Twitter, and had attempted to set up a second viewing. Clementi, who was eighteen and had only recently come out to his family, jumped off the George Washington Bridge three days after learning of the surveillance. His death shocked the country and prompted intense national conversation about the treatment of LGBTQ youth.

Ravi was convicted on all fifteen counts, including invasion of privacy and bias intimidation — the most serious charge, effectively a hate crime designation tied to the targeting of someone based on sexual orientation. The jury found that Ravi had acted with the intent to intimidate Clementi because of his sexual orientation.

Judge Glenn Berman sentenced Ravi to thirty days in jail, significantly less than the ten years he could have received. The judge cited Ravi's age at the time of the offense, his lack of criminal history, and his failure to show what the judge considered genuine remorse. He noted that Ravi showed "a willful and complete indifference" to Clementi's suffering but declined to send a young man to prison for years.

Clementi's family expressed disappointment. LGBTQ advocates were divided. Some felt the sentence was too lenient given the consequences; others worried about the precedent of criminalizing adolescent cruelty however severe. The case raised questions — about prosecutorial discretion, about the relationship between harassment and suicide, about what punishment accomplishes — that no verdict could fully resolve.