Former University of Virginia lacrosse player George Huguely was found guilty Wednesday of murdering Yeardley Love, his ex-girlfriend and UVA student-athlete, and was sentenced to 26 years in prison – 25 years for murder and 1 year for grand larceny. The second-degree murder charge was less than the first-degree the prosecution wanted, but the defense had hoped to convince the jury that Huguely should be found guilty of manslaughter. Both sides, however, agreed that George Huguely killed Yeardley Love.

Some version of this story: On May 3, 2010, Huguely, drunk, went to Love’s apartment, beat her head against the wall so severely that she died, and grabbed her computer on the way out, just a few weeks before she and Huguely were scheduled to graduate. Incidentally, I was also preparing to celebrate graduation from UVA, although I had technically received my diploma in December. Virginia emphasizes tradition, which means there’s one graduation ceremony, and the spring 2010 commencement was particularly important to the university: President John Casteen III was retiring after 20 years in charge of UVA, and in addition to his normal duties at the ceremony, he would deliver the commencement speech.

Yeardley Love’s murder turned a normally exuberant mood into one of tempered celebration. Her death and Huguely’s apparent guilt lay heavily on most minds, but it wouldn’t be enough to delay or alter the traditional walk down the Lawn in sweltering heat. To me, though, the Love incident was a tragic emblem of lacrosse culture and a good-ole boy, Southern university tradition that was fostered by Casteen. 

By now you have heard various indictments of the privileged upper-class world of lacrosse, but they're the same criticisms that have made their way into print over the years. This culture meshed seamlessly with that of UVA, a school founded by American elite Thomas Jefferson, a school that actively maintains a direct connection to his legacy, for better and for worse. It’s a culture in which groups – constructed both at the university and outside it – protect their own at almost any cost. It’s a culture in which fraternities and sororities dominate social life, in which sports teams receive special accommodations, and in which the rich are sheltered from the tribulations of the commoner. 

Take, for example, the standard John Casteen set while serving as the school’s president. Casteen was known for his fundraising ability, thanks largely to his connections; in 2007, UVA accepted a $25 million donation from Phillip Morris, the tobacco company. Guess where Casteen got a six-figure job as a board member after he left UVA? Altria, the rebranded parent company of Phillip Morris, a job that came two years after Casteen watched as a board member while the bank Wachovia collapsed into a compost heap. The university also favored students who were the offspring of wealthy corporate bosses. The son of FedEx founder and major donor Fred Smith once broke a fellow student’s jaw in what a prosecutor called “one of the worst cases of unprovoked attacks” he had seen, yet the university failed to punish the younger Smith until the student-run judiciary committee stepped in. 

This attitude trickled down to the Cavalier lacrosse team, which even by the sport’s standards was excessively belligerent. In the days following Love’s murder, the Washington Post revealed that several players, including Huguely, had been charged with alcohol-related offenses while on the team. University officials claimed ignorance of it all; lacrosse is a drinker’s sport, and drinking doesn’t always mean arrests will follow, of course. After all, boys will be boys. 

But Huguely went further than the rest of the boys. What disturbed me most about Huguely’s trial and conviction was the fact that he, and much of the commentary surrounding the case, was divorced from the social environment in which the crime was committed. His lawyers portrayed Huguely as a troubled young man with a drinking problem, one who was certainly too aggressive with Love, but one who never actually wanted her dead, in spite of his threats and claims to the contrary. He had issues. Some of his friends allegedly thought about staging an intervention. They didn’t, and now Love is dead and Huguely will likely spend the next quarter-century in prison.

Although this story made national headlines in part because it seemed so shocking and unusual, the culture that allowed it to happen is not exceptional to UVA; it’s easy to protect the already privileged, and it’s easy to do nothing when minor injustices are being committed in front of one’s face. During his commencement address three weeks after Love’s death, President Casteen said, “In many parts of the world, evil rules and visits destruction and inhuman conditions of life on those least deserving of it, and least able to protect themselves from harm.” I disagree with part of his statement; I would argue that in most places on earth, evil doesn’t rule, yet those places are dangerous precisely because the minor justices that are routinely tolerated can lead to a culture which allows a horrific crime like murder. A crime that appears surprising but perhaps should not.

Today, the UVA lacrosse team is ranked No. 1 in the country and is the defending national champion thanks in part to the leadership of head coach Dom Starsia. Theresa Sullivan is now president, and while Casteen closed his 2010 commencement address with the words “Yeardley Love,” it’s important to remember that her name symbolizes more than just an isolated crime of passion, but a preventable culture of neglect and permissiveness that Casteen himself urged students to change. 

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Follow Anthony Schneck on Twitter: @AnthonyOlogy

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