Arguments before a panel of appeals judges Wednesday highlighted just how much of an effect a recent Supreme Court decision might have on one of the highest profile New Jersey criminal cases in the past decade.
Dharun Ravi's lawyers told the appeals court that the former Rutgers student should have his record cleared and all of his convictions overturned in the Tyler Clementi webcam spying case.
And prosecutors conceded that one of 15 convictions, for hindering
his apprehension, would likely have to be dismissed. But the rest, the
state argued, could stand.
Ravi's lawyers argued that bias crimes law under which Ravi was
convicted — Ravi set up a camera that spied on Clementi, his roommate
freshman year at Rutgers, during an intimate encounter with a man — does
not apply to any part of this case.
That's because the state Supreme Court struck down part of the law
that laid out what needed to be proven for a bias crime: the victim's
state of mind, rather than the defendant's. [See: Could Dharun Ravi win new trial in Tyler Clementi webcam case?]
The state's case and Ravi's conviction on 15 criminal counts focused on
Clementi's state of mind, rather than Ravi's, attorney Steven Altman
argued. That, he said, has now been determined unconstitutional.
N.J. Supreme Court decision casts shadow on convictions in Tyler Clementi case | NJ.com
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