A recall effort against a California judge was announced in a sexual assault case at Stanford University that ignited huge public outrage after the defendant, Brock Turner, was sentenced to a mere six months in jail and his father complained that his son’s life had been ruined for “20 minutes of action” that was fueled by alcohol and promiscuity.
In court, the victim of Brock Turner’s attack had spoken out against the inequities of the legal process, arguing that the trial and the sentencing were clearly the result made by male and class privilege.
This case has completely gone viral after Turner was found guilty in March and Santa Clara County Superior Court judge, Aaron Persky, gave the 20 year old Turner what many people are arguing to be an incredibly lenient sentence. Turner walked away with six months of jail time and three years probation for three felony counts of sexual assault.
According to Persky, “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him. I think he will not be a danger to others.”
The victim remains unidentified but is known to be a 23 year old young woman, who was not a student of the university. She was attacked while visiting the campus, where she attended a fraternity party. In her statement, she spoke of drinking at the party, but not remembering the assault in January 2015.
She said she was told that she had been found behind a Dumpster, and learned from news reports that the witnesses had discovered her attacker lying on top of her unconscious and partly clothed body.
The two witnesses were graduate students and said they saw Turner assaulting the woman and he ran off when they approached. One of them chased after Turner, tackling him to the ground and held him down until police arrived.
Many are disagreeing with the sentence, Turner committed crimes that could have potentially sent him to prison for 10 years. But lawyers who have appeared in Persky’s court, have called him a fair and conservative judge.
Turner’s father caused an uproar when stating that his son should not have to do jail time for the sexual assault, which he referred to as “the events” as well as “20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life” that were “not violent.” He said that his son has suffered from depression and anxiety in the time of the trial and also argued that the media, having to register as a sex offender and the loss of his appetite for food he once enjoyed, was punishment enough.
The emotional statement that the victim read in court went into full detail of how the attack left her emotionally scarred.
“My independence, natural joy, gentleness, and steady lifestyle I had been enjoying became distorted beyond recognition. I became closed off, angry, self-deprecating, tired, irritable and empty,” she said.