Tag Archives: sexual-assault

A recall petition is making its way around the Internet, one that seeks to penalize the judge at the center of the Brock Turner sexual assault case. Last week, Turner was found guilty on three felony accounts of sexual assault for actions that stemmed from an incident in January of 2015. A jury decreed that Turner digitally raped an unnamed victim near a dumpster after the two had attended a party. The woman was unconscious and woke up hours later in a hospital, dried blood and pine needles all over her. Turner was stopped in the middle of his heinous action by two men who rode by on bicycles, one of whom chased the rapist and tackled him in the street. Due to the verdict, Turner was eligible to face up to 14 years in state prison. On Thursday, however, Santa Clara County Judge Persky ordered a shockingly lenient ruling: only six months… in county jail. Why did Persky barely punish Turner for his sexual assault? In court, the judge cited Turner’s clean criminal record and said he believed that a harsher punishment would leave a “severe impact” on him. As you might expect, critics have gone off on Persky ever since, especially in light of the moving statement also made in court by the victim. You want a “severe impact,” Judge Persky? Consider the following message: Ashleigh Banfield Reads Full Statement by Stanford Rape Victim on Air Following the judge’s ruling, a petition was created on Change.org on Monday. It already has amassed more than 230,000 signatures and it states that “Judge Persky failed to see that the fact that Brock Turner is a white male star athlete at a prestigious university does not entitle him to leniency. “He also failed to send the message that sexual assault is against the law regardless of social class, race, gender or other factors.” It’s worth noting that Persky, like Turner, is a Stanford graduate who played a sport for the prestigious university. This sad case has also gone viral because Turner’s dad, Dan Turner, wrote a letter defending the college athlete surfaced. In it, Dan described the rape as “20 minutes of action out of [Brock’s] 20-plus years of life” and argued that his child should not spend any time in jail at all. Here’s a look at that controversial letter:

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Judge Aaron Persky: Will He Be Recalled?