Dharun Ravi trial: American judicial overkill, and underkill

Washington: Two cases, two deaths, and two vastly different denouements and attitudes. But then who said justice is blind. Sometimes it has selective vision. Dharun Ravi, an Indian American, was convicted last week under hate crime laws for spying through a webcam on his gay roommate, Tyler Clementi, in a Rutgers University dorm room. He tweeted about how he watched his roommate kiss a “dude” and invited other voyeurs to join in for the next encounter two days later. Tragically, Clementi committed suicide on 22 September 2010, three days after learning he had been watched. That Ravi’s behaviour was despicable is without question and he has been rightly convicted on counts of invasion of privacy and bullying and such like. But to invoke hate crime laws and potentially send him in for 10 years – sentencing is on May 21 – or deport him to India, is judicial overkill. The prosecutors and the jury have used standards that are simply not met. Ravi was no gay basher or gay “hater". He and his family adamantly refused a plea bargain, thus opening themselves to a more severe sentence because they didn’t want the idea of a hate crime associated with him. Even prosecution witnesses testified Ravi was not a gay basher and was even trying to get to know Clementi better. He did not post any photos online, nor showed any hostility against Clementi. Once he was discovered, he apologised, saying, “I’ve known you were gay and I have no problem with it.” [caption id=“attachment_253053” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Ravi was no gay basher or gay “hater”. AP Photo"]  [/caption] But Ravi’s motivation for electronic peeping remained in question at the trial. The prosecution argued that he acted out of a deep-seated bias. The defence countered he was simply wary as any other freshman might be upon first learning his roommate was gay. The jury concluded that Clementi committed suicide because he felt intimidated. In other words, the jury went into Clementi’s mind and drew conclusions that he “reasonably believed” he was targeted because of his sexual orientation. The unclear New Jersey bias laws allowed the jury to convict Ravi even though there was no evidence of “hate” as normally understood. Since Clementi is dead, no one knows what he was thinking when he decided to take his life by jumping off a bridge. He had recently come out to his family but what he had endured prior to his arrival at Rutgers is anyone’s guess. Since the victim could not testify, reasonable doubt about his circumstances would be a reasonable assumption. “We’ll never know exactly what he was feeling,” one juror said. “I can only assume.” But the American justice system is supposed to work on a better premise than assumption specially when handing out convictions. And “hate crimes” historically have involved lynching and cross-burnings by the Ku Klux Klan. Theirs was an established manifesto of hate. Which brings us to the other case where despite ample evidence of a serious crime, the police and the justice system are moving slowly. Very slowly. The victim was a 17-year-old African American teenager, Trayvon Martin, whose only crime appears to have been his colour. He was visiting his dad in a gated community in Florida when he walked to a nearby store to get some candy and iced tea during a basketball game. As he walked back, he was shot dead by a “neighbourhood watch volunteer” George Zimmerman who found him “suspicious". Martin bore no arms, made no menacing moves when Zimmerman started following him. He claimed he was attacked by Martin but all the evidence – recorded, real time phone calls to 911, including Zimmerman’s own – clearly show the teenager made no threats but was stopped and pushed by Zimmerman who was itching for action. Despite the 911 dispatcher clearly telling Zimmerman “not to follow” Martin, he did and shot the young high school student in the back. Martin was talking on the cell phone to his girlfriend in Miami when he was ambushed and suddenly stopped talking. But she could hear the commotion and has given an account, which demolishes Zimmerman’s claim. Two neighbours also called 911 upon hearing the commotion and one of the calls had Martin’s chilling cries of “Help,” “Help,” in the background. You can imagine how loudly Martin must have yelled for help to be recorded in a phone call made from inside a house. It is the most blood-curdling sound I have heard in my many years in journalism. I have seen my share of riot victims, communal violence, blood and gore in India but I suppose it was always after the fact and therefore a little less chilling. If you think Zimmerman is behind bars for brutally ending a young life for absolutely no reason, you are wrong. Police have failed to arrest him despite clinching evidence, and have chosen to “believe” he acted in self-defence. They are taking cover under a Florida state law called “Stand Your Ground” which allows people to use deadly force when “threatened” even though it is clear Zimmerman was never threatened. They haven’t yet interviewed Martin’s girlfriend who was the last person he talked to before being shot. They have also failed to test Zimmerman for drugs and alcohol, a routine practice in a murder, but they did test the dead body of Martin! It has been nearly a month since Martin was shot dead on 26 February for what has been dubbed “walking while black". Martin’s parents pleaded with police for justice and only after long weeks of trying and failing, they got black civil rights leaders involved. The case then got national attention and President Obama’s Justice Department belatedly – and only under pressure – opened a criminal investigation on Monday. If Martin were white, Zimmerman would be in jail. If Zimmerman were black, he would also be in jail. The two cases show two very different ways justice moves in America. You be the judge.