Two Swedish graduate students riding past on bicycles witnessed the assault and intervened to stop it, chasing and tackling Turner when he fled.
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After Turner’s six months behind bars, he will be on probation for three years – during which he’ll be banned from buying alcohol, and must submit to regular chemical tests.
Brock Allen Turner, 20, a champion swimmer with Olympic ambitions, escaped with a six-month sentence which sparked an outcry as being far too lenient. He faced a maximum of 14 years in jail and Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky’s sentence has led to widespread outcry and a campaign to recall him.
“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”, continued the statement. “The defendant is youthful and has no significant record of prior criminal offenses”.
Sofie Karasek is director of education for End Rape on Campus, an advocacy group she helped found in 2013.
Turner’s father also released a controversial statement of his own after the verdict was reached, explaining why his son should not spend a single day behind bars. I am coming out to you as simply a woman wanting to be heard.
His phone included a video of Turner smoking from a bong and drinking a bottle of liquor in December 2014, a month before he raped a woman near a Stanford frat party. “That’s what student activists have been really trying to draw attention to over the last couple of years”.
Various colleagues of Persky praised the judge in response to the criticism.
She expressed concern to judge Persky about this but he told the court that positive character references and Turner’s previous good behaviour had been factors in his sentencing decision, adding that he had to ask himself: “Is incarceration in prison the right answer for the poisoning of (the woman’s) life?” The university banned him from campus for life and offered the victim counseling and other support even though she was not a student.
“There isn’t a second that has gone by where I haven’t regretted the course of events I took on January 17th/18th”, Turner says. “I think he will not be a danger to others”. “I wanted to take off my body like a jacket and leave it at the hospital with everything else”. “Both because it’s completely insane to have that type of mentality when we’re trying to get justice for people, but also because I had a similar experience – my perpetrator was basically told, ‘Just don’t do it again.’ That really is invalidating”.
The Associated Press does not generally identify victims of sexual assault.
Prosecutors say Brooker was subjected to strict mandatory minimum sentencing laws in Alabama because of the weight of the plants. That we are looking out for one another. “Usually the statues will say, “This crime deserves this level of punishment” – let’s say between two and six years – and there’s discretion within that framework for the judge to decide what to impose”.
Turner, 20, read aloud his letter to the judge in court.
Rape culture needs to be addressed – and men have a responsibility to do so. It can mean stopping a potential date rape, as three women in California did: they saw something shifty and then did something about it. She is the wounded one.
There’s some wonderful sexual assault resources out there for survivors – but, as is the case with many fantastic non-profits, there’s never quite enough resources.
At no point, however, does Turner acknowledge that he sexually assaulted the victim.
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A Xavier University professor happens to have the name Leslie Rasmussen but has nothing to do with the case at Stanford University.
