Syracuse, N.Y. — A former Cornell University student arrested last fall after the start of the war in Gaza for posting threats of violence against Jewish people on campus was sentenced Monday to 21 months in prison.
Patrick Dye, of suburban Rochester, New York, was charged by federal authorities with posting anonymous threats to a Greek life forum in October to shoot and stab Jews. The threats came amid a surge in war-related anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim rhetoric that has unsettled Jewish students on the upstate New York campus.
Dye pleaded guilty in April to using interstate communications to send threats to kill or injure another person.
Federal prosecutors said U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes sentenced Dye to 21 months in prison and three years of probation. According to cnycentral.com, the judge said Dye “severely disrupted campus activities” and committed a hate crime, but also noted his autism diagnosis, mental illness and history of non-violence.
He could have been sentenced to up to five years in prison.
Dye’s mother said she believed the threats were fuelled in part by medication he was taking to treat depression and anxiety.
His public defender, Lisa Peebles, argues that Dye is pro-Israel and that his posts were a misguided attempt to rally support for the country.
“He mistakenly believed that the posts would spark a ‘backlash’ on campus in response to what he perceived as anti-Israel media coverage and pro-Hamas sentiment,” Peebles wrote in court documents.
Dye, who was a third-year student at the time, was suspended from the Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York.
