<p>Dharun Ravi, the Rutgers freshman whom was involved the secret video recording of his gay roomate, turned down a plea bargain from the prosecutor. He will roll the dice and head for trial, as his lawyer says...'because he's innocent.' Yeah, okay.</p>
<p>Davi has apparently spent most of his young years in the U.S., but...he is a legal resident, not a U.S. citizen. He is a citizen of India. Apparently prosecutors used the threat of "encouraging" the feds to deport him if he were to be convicted of any of the charges lodged against him.</p>
<p>Should he be deported if convicted? The NJ prosecutors say they won't stand in the way, unless he agrees to a plea.</p>
<p>I don’t see anything problematic with this story. The prosecutors are encouraging him to take a plea agreement, as is their right. He wants his day in court, as is his right.</p>
<p>As to your question of should he be deported if convicted, for me to have an opinion on that I would need to know what he was convicted of.</p>
<p>I’ll expand on my reply. If memory serves he is being brought up on more than one charge so guilt or innocence isn’t as straight forward as it sometimes is. He might be found guilty of some charges and not guilty of others.</p>
<p>The law s/b followed but my own opinion fwiw is that if he commits a crime then he should be deported. There are many thousands of people who want to come to the USA who don’t commit crimes - we don’t need people who come here and decide to commit crimes.</p>
<p>It’ll be up to the jury to decide whether he committed a crime or not. While what he did was stupid and reprehensible, I don’t know if it was actually a crime although it seems that it should be.</p>
<p>I really don’t like the plea bargain system, where in effect the prosecution can offer a better and better deal the weaker they really think their case is. If someone believes (or in some cases knows) they are innocent, they still have to decide between the chance of a wrong verdict (especially in an emotionally charged case like this) and 10 years in jail, or just plead guilty to something they didn’t do.</p>
<p>Sigh… As much as I absolutely detest what this guy has done, the family of the victim is asking for leniency, that this guy should not serve major jail time and that he should not be deported. Taking into account the family’s wishes, I’ll override the 99% of my body that wants him to serve 10 years, then get deported.</p>
<p>It’s not up to the family to decide. The guy either broke laws or didn’t and if he broke laws then he needs to face the consequences including deportation.</p>
<p>It’s up to the prosecutors to decide what the charges will be and whether or not to move forward with a trial or try to attempt to arrange for a plea agreement. Testimony from the victim’s family will have an impact at sentencing. A request for leniency from them at that time may enter into the judge’s decision.</p>
<p>Yes, RyanMK, really. It’s up to the prosecutor to decide whether to prosecute and if found guilty it’s up to the judge to determine the sentence. In the article you linked the family ‘begged mercy’ and the judge can take that under consideration in the sentencing.</p>
<p>It’s not up to family members to decide whether or what action can take place - they can only make requests. This works both ways. Sometimes the family wants a harsh sentence for the convicted person yet the judge gives a light sentence. We hear about this one all the time.</p>
<p>Philosophically I think it needs to be this way or we could end up with murderers doing no time at all because of some family member’s requests, perhaps due to their religion, due to blackmail, threats to the family if they don’t decide their way, etc. The way the system is currently set up it’s out of the hands of the family members to make the decisions which is what it needs to be if the process is to be less partial.</p>
<p>The State judge can sentence him to community service, but that will not govern the deportation question. Only the feds can do that. I think that is the problem, that he cant plea without rolling the dice on the deportation issue.</p>
<p>Whether everyone thinks this is fair or not, one clear lesson is for parents of students who are not citizens, to make it clear to them that things which might be made to “go away” with community service for citizen kids may be a much more serious problem for them.</p>
<p>I believe the prosecutor is afraid of both the outcome and the “collateral damage” that might arise from a trial…both to Clementi’s reputation, and to the as yet publicly unidentified sexual partner whose name is now known to the defense. </p>
<p>Frankly, I’m surprised that requirement was in the plea deal. Its an announcement by a stupid prosecutor about what they are concerned about. The other comments in the article seem likely true to me. In today’s world, while electronic communication can hang you, it can also help exonerate you.</p>
<p>If this guy gets off, this will be an outrage. I suppose powerful and well-paid criminal lawyers can make things happen for their laughing young client.
It’s bad enough that the colluding young lady friend who proffered her computer for these vicious actions got protected.</p>
<p>It will interesting. I feel sorry for the family of the deceased that now all will be made public which I’m guessing they hoped would not happen. Clearly by turning down the plea the accused and his attorney feel that there was much more to the story than what the media portrayed, but that should surprise no one. I have no opinion on the deportation question until the trial is over.</p>
I work w/ college students and I remember the discussion about this incident. The adults in my department (student health) felt this was tantamount to a hate crime. The students (work-study and interns) disagreed – saying it was a case of one roommate going too far in his attempt to control the dorm room. The students said dorm room control problems are VERY common, especially when one roommate is obsessively grade focused while the other roommate wants the “college experience” w/ new found freedom to drink, party or whatever.</p>
<p>You can’t “control” a shared room by videotaping a sexual encounter of your roomate and then blogging about it. Ravi was a mean-spirited fool for participating in this scheme even if he had no intent or expectation of the unfortunate outcome. That he is rejecting so harmless a plea bargain deal possibly designed to protect the other party to this encounter is outrageous. If he so truly believes he is innocent then he deserves his right to go to trial and suffer any and all consequences of that action including deportation. Let me know his flight number so I can waive goodbye.</p>