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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsStanford sexual assault: judge facing recall campaign over light sentence
Source: The Guardian
Stanford law professor leads campaign against judge who gave
six-month sentence to the former swimmer who sexually assaulted
an unconscious woman
Sam Levin in San Francisco and Jo Walters in New York
Monday 6 June 2016 19.11 BST
The victim of a sexual assault by a former Stanford university swimmer said on Monday she was overwhelmed and speechless at the deluge of support for her as the judge who gave her attacker a light sentence faced a recall campaign.
Brock Allen Turner, 20, who was convicted sexually assaulting an unconscious woman on campus, was sentenced to six months in county jail and probation a punishment that is significantly less severe than the minimum prison time of two years prescribed by state law for his felony offenses.
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The Guardian can also reveal that the judge who gave the former Stanford athlete the light sentence will now face a recall campaign led by a law professor at the elite university who argues the jurist took extraordinary measures to allow the student to avoid prison.
Further scrutiny on the judges remarks at sentencing appear to suggest he concluded the defendant had less moral culpability because he was drunk, and that a light sentence would be an antidote to the anxiety he had suffered from intense media attention on the case.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/06/stanford-sexual-assault-judge-recall
CincyDem
(6,336 posts)uponit7771
(90,301 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)But probation officials, who see hundreds of less remorseful defendants, had it right. Turner should be given six months in county jail. He is not, as the prosecution has it, "a continued threat to the community."
Why do I say that? The probation people cite his lack of a criminal record and what they see as genuine remorse. His attorneys have argued that the ex-swimmer has a record of real accomplishment....
In the abstract, Kianerci is right. We should not give people breaks because they go to Stanford. But it is hard to judge this case apart from its context. And that context has messy elements that a summation of the charges misses.
kimmylavin
(2,284 posts)It's nice to see that the comments are almost universally taking this guy to task...
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)kimmylavin
(2,284 posts)Commenters on any site making sense is always nice.
Omaha Steve
(99,494 posts)K&R!
OS
Norman Conch Quest
(64 posts)Goddamn idiot!
Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)He seemed unusually emphatic with the rapist.
niyad
(113,052 posts)radicalliberal
(907 posts)He's scum. Just like the father of the rapist.
avaistheone1
(14,626 posts)I hope the recall drive succeeds.
progree
(10,890 posts)... He will never be his happy go lucky self with that easy going personality and welcoming smile, he wrote of his son. His every waking minute is consumed with worry, anxiety, fear, and depression. You can see this in his face, the way he walks, his weakened voice, his lack of appetite.
More: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/06/father-stanford-university-student-brock-turner-sexual-assault-statement
"his lack of appetite". Sigh. Which appetite?
gollygee
(22,336 posts)3catwoman3
(23,946 posts)Truly appalling.
Saviolo
(3,280 posts)Don't teach your son not to drink, asshole, teach him not to rape!
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I think this father should join his son in prison.
progree
(10,890 posts)Lochloosa
(16,061 posts)Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)Too bad Dad wasn't shooting blanks.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)If my sister, a rape victim when in college, pistol whipped him for 20 minutes. Should her 20 minutes of action outweigh the 45 years she has been a good citizen? I think his tune would change.
aggiesal
(8,907 posts)DebbieCDC
(2,543 posts)See what this piece of shit's daddy wrote in his "defense" to the light-hearted judge:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/%E2%80%98a-steep-price-to-pay-for-20-minutes-of-action-dad-defends-stanford-sex-offender/ar-BBtUZpE?li=BBnb7Kz
That fury intensified Sunday as critics slammed a letter written by Turners father as oblivious, tone-deaf and impossibly offensive.
His life will never be the one that he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve, Dan A. Turner wrote in a letter arguing that his son should receive probation, not jail time. That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life.
He will never be his happy go lucky self with that easy going personality and welcoming smile, the letter says, noting that the former Olympic hopeful is now a registered sex offender.
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His every waking minute is consumed with worry, anxiety, fear, and depression, the father wrote. You can see this in his face, the way he walks, his weakened voice, his lack of appetite. Brock always enjoyed certain types of food and is a very good cook himself. I was always excited to buy him a big ribeye steak to grill or to get his favorite steak for him. Now he barely consumes any food and eats only to exist.
rurallib
(62,379 posts)How could that woman do such a thing to this wonderful boy?
for the humor impaired.
progree
(10,890 posts)shanti
(21,675 posts)has to go without his ribeyes.....
Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)He's welcome to stop any time.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)He deserves to be disbarred and ejected from office. The sentence was an outrage.
Greywing
(1,124 posts)been re-victimized by the judicial system. I always try to find information out about judges before election time - should be much easier to find
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)went to court because they knew how they would be treated by a judicial system that always believes the rapists story over the victims.
Takket
(21,528 posts)Was it a statewide election? A local election? Wondering how we can help get the word out to the electorate so we can get their signatures for the recall, but need to know who to target.
elljay
(1,178 posts)Superior Court judges can be appointed by the Governor when there is a vacancy or elected in a county-wide election every 6 years. Persky was appointed by Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 and has run for election ever since. He is unopposed in today's election, which means that his name will not be on the ballot and he will be automatically re-elected in November.
Akamai
(1,779 posts)people from engaging in the same behavior. There's the old joke about the criminal who is being hung after stealing a horse. He says to the judge, "That's too severe--hanging me for stealing a horse." And the judge tells him, "It's not for you're stealing a horse, but it's so other people don't steal a horse." (Frankly, stealing a horse should not be a capital offense, but that's a different matter. Giving someone an incredibly light sanction after a horrendous act a certain license would allow others to think that that particular crime is unimportant.)
in his book, "Tribe", writer Sebastian Junger noted that one of the reasons why early Native American tribes were generally peaceful was that greed was controlled, and that if people were really greedy, they might in the long run be put to death.
But none of the Wall Street bankers are in jail, billionaires in the Supreme Court rig the political and economic system, and it is easy to see that this is one of the reasons why so many Americans are upset at the current system.
Thom Hartmann has been focusing on this issue over the last several weeks and has had Junger on his radio show and on his RT TV show.
go Bernie!
dark forest
(110 posts)There is no excuse for rape, nor for treating it so frivolously
niyad
(113,052 posts)I know what should happen to that judge. just wondering what sick skeletons are in his closet.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Not the 'all American' high school jock or judges that should know better.