Given the current state of race issues in our country, I’m not the least bit surprised. We all know this would be a different story if the person were of non-white ethnicity.
Brock Allen Turner, 20, is a former Stanford swimmer and US Olympic trialist. In January of 2015, Turner raped an unconscious 23-year-old woman behind a dumpster on campus. Turner was arrested and later released on $150,000 bond.
Turner’s trial concluded this past Thursday, and while he faced up to 10 years in prison, the prosecution recommended he serve six years. Judge Aaron Persky decided both sentences were too harsh and elected on six months in county jail and probation.
Judge Persky felt that Turner’s age and lack of criminal history warranted him a much shorter sentence. “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him,” Persky said at Turner’s sentencing on Thursday. “I think he will not be a danger to others.”
The 23-year-old victim in the rape case, whose blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit at the time of the rape and who had no memory of the attack, gave important testimony at the trial.
“You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today,” she said, reportedly directly to Turner. “I am a human being who has been irreversibly hurt.”
The privileged prevails again.
h/t NYMag.com
Leave a Reply