Rutgers freshman suicide after roommate broadcast gay sexual encounter online?

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by vailpass

College kids pulling a prank that went severely wrong because the prankee was emotionally unstable.

The self-inflicted death of the young man is a tragedy. It would serve no good purpose to society to compound that tragedy by ruining the lives of two more young people with prison time when they have already been, and will continue to be, subjected to a much more severe punishment from the highest of courts: the court of public opinion. Additonally these two young students will suffer the consequences of potentially having to leave their school, one of the finest schools in the nation.

The guilt and sorrow these two young scholars will carry with them as a result of the young man's decision to kill himself will exceed 5 years, in fact they are already carrying a life sentence.

Okay, set aside the consequences.

Invasion and publication of privacy is a crime punishable by up to 5 years.

Can you come up with a more brazen invasion and publication of privacy than this? Even if you look at something like the Erin Andrews national exposure - Erin Andrews is a public figure. For some college kid, posting it on DrudgeReport or some other national source isn't going to be much more damaging that merely circulating it amongst the local populace.

If any kind of conduct is punishable by the full 5 years allowed under the statute, this is it. I see no mitigating factors here. It was pre-meditated, it was done via false pretense (he told the kid that he would leave the room) and it was done with the clear intent of humiliating the kid. There's no silver lining to this, there's no justifiable influence.

This is precisely the kind of behavior this statute was designed to address.

Ignore whether or not the kid killed himself and ask just how much more egregious an invasion of privacy can get.