A petition signed by 250 Stanford students, professors, and alumni called for a minimum sentence of two years in jail for Turner. The judge assigned six months.
Last week, a former Stanford University swimmer found guilty of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman on campus was sentenced to six months in county jail. Since that decision, a number of letters that were written to the court, have emerged.
Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP
Brock Turner, 20, was convicted for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster on the Stanford campus following a fraternity party in 2015.
The woman, now 23, was found unconscious and half naked by two graduate students who tackled Turner and called the police. She was unresponsive, had abrasions on her body, and dirt and pine needles in her vagina.
Turner faced a maximum of 14 years in state prison, but on Thursday was sentenced to six months in county jail and probation – an assignment which required the judge to grant an exception to the minimum two-year sentence for convicted rapists.
The Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky justified the six-month sentence by arguing a longer stay in prison would have a "severe impact" on Turner, who had repeatedly been lorded as a champion swimmer and aspiring Olympian during the trial.
On Friday BuzzFeed News published a letter to Turner written by the victim in which she detailed the extreme affect the assault had on her and her disappointment with the "gentle" sentence assigned by the judge.
"My independence, natural joy, gentleness, and steady lifestyle I had been enjoying became distorted beyond recognition," she wrote. "I became closed off, angry, self-deprecating, tired, irritable, empty."
In the letter Dan Turner describes his son's high GPA, athletic ability, and the "devastating impact" the case had on his son.
After Stanford law professor Michele Dauber posted an excerpt from the letter on Twitter, many people expressed outrage on social media.
"Now he barely consumes any food and eats only to exist," the letter reads. "That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life."
Read the full letter below:
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1YbpTLQ
No comments:
Post a Comment