The Letters Had an Impact on Sentencing of Ravi

To many fair minded people and people knowledgeable of how most judges will sentence (by average) a person vis a vis the crime were shocked by the sentence of Ravi.  In most cases a person convicted of manslaughter usually wont get the same low sentence as somebody who assaulted somebody else by a slapped in the in the face. 

In the case of Ravi you had a jury who convicted him of a laundry list of crimes, for him to do 30 days with small financial fine is like the judge annulled the conviction of the jury. 

One is curious to ask why? Is he anti gay? Was he a bully when he was in college? After listening to all the testimony and evidence we have to assumed he was very well verse on the crime. As we ponder this question we find all the letters that were sent to him(the judge).  Most people were expecting a serious sentence.  That is people on both sides of the issue. The only people that had something to gain to plead with the judge were the Ravi family and many supporters from his country and from here, even gay people themselves.  They were the ones that mostly wrote to the judge asking for mercy.  . 

Those letters came from a man who was once beaten with a baseball bat in a racially motivated attack, the widow of a Minnesota judge, a group representing lesbian, gay and transgender people from South Asia, a gay member of the Navy, and the father of a woman who committed suicide, among others.

There were more than 100 in all, and nearly all had the same theme: telling the judge it would be unjust to put former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi in prison for using a webcam to see roommate Tyler Clementi kissing another man in 2010, just days before Clementi killed himself.

"I learned a lot about bias crimes and bullying through this case," said a writer named Louise. "The bullying and bias acts occurred when the legal system and media got involved. Ravi is not to blame for the hardships endured by the gay community nor should he be tied to the whipping post because of it. If Tyler was not gay, this would have been just a prank gone wrong and no one would have rushed to incarcerate."

Ravi, now 20, was convicted in March of 15 criminal counts. Soon after, the letters began pouring into Superior Court Judge Glenn Berman's chambers making requests for how to handle sentencing.

Last week, Berman said Ravi would have to serve 30 days in jail. Because the sentence is less than a year, it decreases the chances that immigration authorities will seek to have Ravi deported to India, where he was born and remains a citizen. Prosecutors said they would appeal the sentence as too light.

Before delivering the sentence, Berman held up a folder, inches thick, of the letters he had received. Later, he quoted one of them, calling Clementi's suicide the "pink elephant" in the case.

Some of the letters came through an orchestrated effort. More than 30 of those in the file opened by the judge included a pre-printed plea with space for personal additions.

Sandeep Sharma, a friend of Ravi's family and an organizer of the letters, said he thinks the letters were one factor in the relatively light sentence. "It had probably some influence," Sharma said. "I think the judge himself did not believe that this case belonged to the criminal court system to begin with.” 

So we have a loss of a good young man that happened to be gay and in the closet. A non violent man.  Had he been straight he probably would have been jailed for what he would have done to Ravi and then raised his arms like a champion after he wins a boxing match.