The suicide of a Rutgers freshman, Mr. Tyler Clementi, is a tragic event, to say the least. The two students who broadcast his homosexual sexual encounter over the Internet using a hidden webcam, Dhuran Ravi and Molly Wei, now face charges for invasion of privacy. It is alleged that they filmed an intimate encounter of Clementi's with a webcam, posted a twitter message about the recording, and shared the video on iChat. The problem here is that the Middlesex County Prosecutor isn't able to charge them with more serious crimes. The consequences of their actions certainly seem to warrant more. The students were charged with 3rd degree invasion, which carries a potential five years in prison. However, there is a presumption of a non-custodial sentence for 4th and 3rd degree crimes. This means that Ravi and Wei would be looking at probation or even potential enrollment in a pretrial intervention program.

It is clear that the students' actions were driven by anti-gay bias. It may be argued that they might have had the same poor judgment had the victim been heterosexual. The only thing working against the students is the media coverage of the case. If the students were to end up in jail it would only be because of the media coverage's focus on the anti-gay motivation, and would not be consistent with what the average 3rd degree invasion criminal would receive. A defense attorney with experience dealing with intense media coverage would have to confront this risk head on.