Dharun Ravi issues apology for his part in Tyler Clementi’s death

On Tuesday he issued, his most contrite public statement yet.

“I accept responsibility for and regret my thoughtless, insensitive, immature,
stupid and childish choices that I made on September 19, 2010, and September
21, 2010,” he said.

“My behaviour and actions, which at no time were motivated by hate, bigotry,
prejudice or desire to hurt, humiliate or embarrass anyone, were nonetheless
the wrong choices and decisions. I apologise to everyone affected by those
choices.”

Last week, a judge sentenced him to 30 days in jail beginning May 31. Because
the sentence is less than a year, it decreases the chances that federal
immigration authorities will seek to have Ravi deported to India, where he
was born and remains a citizen.

Prosecutors, finding the sentence too lenient, said they would appeal.

Ravi’s lawyers have said they expect to appeal the convictions entirely. They
say that he was not hateful and that authorities charged him with such
serious crimes because of Clementi’s suicide even though he was not charged
with the 18-year-old’s death.

Ravi could have remained free during the appeal but instead is volunteering to
head to jail in New Jersey.

“It’s the only way I can go on with my life,” he said in the statement.

The apology comes as a reversal in course for Ravi, whose story inspired
hundreds of people to rally at New Jersey’s State House calling for no
prison time and changes in the state’s hate crime laws.

When Ravi was sentenced last month, Judge Glenn Berman chastised him for not
apologizing for his actions.

“I heard this jury say ‘guilty’ 288 times,” Berman said, referring to all the
sub-parts of the charges Ravi faced repeated 12 times, once for each juror.
“And I haven’t heard you apologize once.”

During the court proceeding, Ravi, who expressed remorse in March in a
newspaper interview, chose not to address the judge, though he cried as his
mother pleaded for mercy from the judge.

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