Dharun Ravi, a former Rutgers University student, could possibly face 10 years in prison and be deported to his native India when he is sentenced on Monday for spying on and intimidating his homosexual roommate, Tyler Clementi, who killed himself by jumping off New York’s George Washington Bridge. Clementi’s death in September of 2010, and Ravi’s trial earlier this year, catapulted the issue of cyberbullying and prejudices against homosexuals into the national spotlight.
Clementi was an 18-year-old freshman who plunged to his death in the Hudson River after learning that Ravi had spied on a sexual encounter he had with another man. Ravi declined a plea deal offered by the Middlesex County prosecutors that would have avoided him time in jail, in exchange for undergoing counseling, doing 600 hours of community service and disposing of any information that could identify the man who appeared in the Web video with Clementi. Prosecutors also offered to help Ravi avoid deportation, although they could not guarantee it.
