Brock Turner, the 21-year-old man sentenced to six months for the January 2015 sexual assault of an unconscious woman at Stanford University, was released from jail early on Friday morning after serving just half of his controversially brief sentence.
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Brock Turner is pictured in his booking mug following his sentencing in his sexual assault conviction.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin, said there was no justice in Turner’s sentence and it was time for Persky’s “early release”.
At his request, Persky will no longer hear criminal cases after a transfer to the civil division by the end of September.
Turner, like almost all California jail inmates, will be released after serving half his sentence.
Images of the cell were Turner served his time were also released.
Turner, clad in a white dress shirt, black slacks, and holding a black suit jacket, looked straight ahead as he briskly made a roughly 30-to 40-foot walk from the front doors of the jail to a waiting white SUV that immediately sped off. He must register as a sex offender for life and faces three years of supervised probation.
Friday, about a dozen people protested outside Turner’s family home in Sugarcreek Township. “No one is ever asking to be sexually assaulted”, said rape survivor Kamilah Willingham.
Persky sentenced Turner to only six months in county jail and three years’ probation, following recommendations from a probation report that described the case as “less serious due to the defendant’s level of intoxication”.
Prosecutors asked for six years, but Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Turner on June 2 to six months in jail and three years of probation, as recommended by the probation department.
Brock Turner’s case ignited fierce debate over campus rape and the criminal justice system.
“You don’t know me, but you’ve been inside me, and that’s why we’re here today”, she told her attacker in the statement read in court. “You have been convicted of violating me, intentionally, forcibly, sexually, with malicious intent, and all you can admit to is consuming alcohol”.
In the aftermath of Turner’s sentencing, the Department of Education released a list of sexual assault complaints at colleges across the country. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate.
Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said Turner received nonspecific threats while locked up in addition to the packet of hate mail given to him as he left jail.
Smith, the county’s sheriff, gave reporters outside the jail Friday a copy of a letter she sent to California Gov.
Also this week, state lawmakers passed a bill written by the Santa Clara district attorney’s office, calling for mandatory prison time for those convicted of committing sexual assaults upon intoxicated or unconscious victims. Brown hasn’t said whether he will sign it. The outcry also prompted legislation sent to Brown last week that would effectively require prison for anyone convicted of raping or sexually assaulting an unconscious or intoxicated person. But Dan Newman, a spokesman for the campaign in favor of the ballot measure, called the list “merely a starting point”.
Following backlash and the push for his recall, Persky voluntarily removed himself from hearing criminal cases.
“Recalling a judge is not easy, it’s an extreme measure, but this judge deserves a recall and the community needs one if we’re going to be more protected”, Swalwell said.
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Persky decided six months in county jail was sufficient, concluding, A prison sentence would have a severe impact on Turner. They want the judge held accountable for showing bias in this case of a privileged athlete who they believe was given special treatment to the detriment of his victim.
