Tarsha Claiborne, the University of Iowa dental student accused of two hate crimes, is scheduled to be arraigned June 15. Reaction among the ISU community is varied as to whether her alleged actions are worthy of being deemed a hate crime and if she is in need of psychological help.

Claiborne, who is African-American, is being formally charged with making threats in violation of individual rights and trespass in violation of individual rights. The second-year dentistry student was arrested April 20. U of I officials have been quoted as saying that Claiborne confessed to the charges.

The first hate e-mail was sent March 28 to David Johnson, dean of the College of Dentistry, and several faculty members. A second e-mail threatening violence was sent two days later to eight minority dental students.

Following the e-mails, a bowl of spaghetti and red-food coloring was found April 4 outside the door of a minority student’s off-campus apartment, accompanied by a note stating that the spaghetti represented “dead black man’s brains.”

Ben Stone, executive director of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, said the way the hate-crime law reads in Iowa is “that it’s either assault or a threat or something like that, and on top of that, it’s motivated by a bias, a racial bias or a gender bias or hatred of homosexuals.”

Stone said the ICLU is concerned in hate-crime cases that juries will be bombarded with the negative views of the accused person as opposed to the illegal conduct that harms others, he said.

“That’s certainly a danger of any hate-crime trial is that the trial will really be about whether or not this person has hateful ideas as opposed to whether or not they engaged in conduct that’s illegal,” he said. “Hate-crime cases really do put people on trial for their views because the juries could possibly convict somebody because they didn’t like their views.

“The way it’s set up is a hate crime is actually a separate crime; it’s not an enhancement of another crime; it’s a crime in and of itself, with its own penalty, and so that’s why we [ICLU members] think that racial motivation should be taken into account at sentencing as opposed to during the trial itself. That way it keeps the jury from having this testimony regarding hateful thinking that could bias the defendant,” Stone said.

Stephanie Madon, assistant professor of psychology, said she believes Claiborne’s case is complicated for several reasons.

“I think that the situation in her case is particularly complex because, although I think that her actions are completely consistent with hate crimes, the fact that she is a member of the groups that she was expressing the hatred towards makes me wonder what the motives were behind her behaviors,” she said. “I’m not really sure that it’s a classic case of hate crimes.”

Claiborne’s mental health may be an issue in this case. Lillie Claiborne, the accused’s mother, testified before a judge that her daughter needed psychiatric treatment following the death of her father and grandfather.

Pamela Thomas, director of the Sloss House Women’s Center, said that it appears Claiborne has had a difficult life.

“She appears to be somebody that is mentally ill and has had tremendous stress in her life,” she said.

Thomas Hill, vice president for Student Affairs, said every angle should be explored to be positive the charges are accurate.

“If they can substantiate the fact that the psychological problems rendered her incapable of making good decisions, that kind of thing, then I think they need to look at it,” he said.

Nicole Meek, senior in English, called Claiborne’s case “tragic.”

“I thought it was quite tragic to find out that it was one of the students, and it was an African-American student at that,” she said. “It makes it look bad. You know if anything else happens there then it will be skeptical just because of what this one woman did.”

Paul Johnson, junior in computer engineering, is unsure whether Claiborne should face jail time, though.

“I would think she would have to be evaluated psychologically — I don’t know if we should send her to jail,” he said.

Johnson said he doesn’t believe that the fact that Claiborne is an African-American should be a factor in her case.

“I wouldn’t think it would make a difference if you were of the race you were slamming,” he said. “A person who is gay can still be homophobic.”