Brock Turner, a 20-year-old former swimmer at Stanford University, has been sentenced to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. Judge Aaron Persky worried that a longer sentence would have “a severe impact” on Turner.
The victim’s blood alcohol level was more than three times over the legal limit at the time of the crime, and Turner’s was over two times the limit. The victim, whose name has not been released publicly, stated she was not able to remember the events that transpired on the night of her assault, while Turner claimed that he could. This made it possible for Turner to profess his apparent innocence in attempting to rape an incapacitated woman who was passed out on the side of the road, as witnessed by two bikers who found the two and helped the victim.
The maximum sentence for this crime was 14 years, according to CNN, with prosecutors against Turner recommending six years. The punishment of only six months reportedly left the victim and her defense “disappointed and baffled.” In March, The Washington Post reported that Turner’s total crimes included “three felonies including assault with intent to rape…and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object.”
The lax penalty can likely be attributed to Turner’s athletic prowess and social standing (as well as other demographic factors such as his race), while the judge who determined the sentence stated they “took into consideration both [Turner’s] age and the fact that he had never been convicted of a serious crime before.” Mike Armstrong, Turner’s defense attorney, said himself that he would be “livid” and “furious” if his own daughter had been the victim of this crime and the perpetrator received such a minimal punishment.
Turner’s father, however, wrote a statement defending his son, where he dwelled on changes to Turner’s mood and appetite, and talked about how now, “his life will never be the one he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve,” saying, “That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life.”
The victim powerfully eviscerated this point of view in a statement she made to the court at sentencing, which was printed in full by BuzzFeed News.
“You have been convicted of violating me, intentionally, forcibly, sexually, with malicious intent, and all you can admit to is consuming alcohol,” she wrote to Turner in the statement. “Do not talk about the sad way your life was upturned because alcohol made you do bad things. Figure out how to take responsibility for your own conduct.”