Bret Easton Ellis Calls Dharun Ravi Trial a Witch Hunt

Less Than Zero author Bret Easton Ellis calls the case against Dharun Ravi, currently awaiting verdict in his trial for multiple counts in the death of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, "a witch hunt."

In a series of tweets sent yesterday Easton writes: "Dharun Ravi might be a jerk but if a jury convicts him because Tyler Clementi killed himself then the US justice system is seriously fucked...If Tyler Clementi had not killed himself we would have never heard of Dharun Ravi. This is a witch hunt pure and simple and it sickens me...Bullying=Suicide? Personally I blame the parents and an entire culture that indulges a childproof world where pain and losing doesn't exist....I was bullied. It was awful. But I learned a lot. I learned how to cope. It taught me things: people are cruel, the world sucks. I grew up."

Ravi, 20, is charged with multiple counts in the death of Clementi, including invasion of privacy and bias intimidation. Clementi jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge in 2010 after Ravi, his roommate, had spied on him during an intimate encounter with another man. Watch closing remarks in his trial here.

Easton has previously courted controversy with his Twitter feed after comparing the FOX series Glee to a "puddle of HIV."