Most of us have heard the story of the twenty-one year old former Stanford University swimmer and rapist, Brock Turner. Three months ago, he was put on trial and convicted of three separate felonies: penetration (digital) of an intoxicated person, penetration (digital) of an unconscious person, and assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated person.
In January of 2015, Turner was caught in the act of assaulting, with intent to fully rape, a fellow student on campus who was unconscious by means of intoxication. When he ran, one of the two bicyclists who had caught him tackled Turner and held him to make sure that he could not get away.
This past March, the case was put to trial. At his sentencing, Turner was facing up to fourteen years in federal prison. However, when he was convicted on June 2nd of this year, his sentence was set at just six months at the county jail (not a federal prison) with three years of probation. The judge felt that a longer sentence would “have a severe impact on him.”
Turner’s sentence, which the unidentified victim has called “a mockery of the seriousness of the assaults”, was a lot shorter than the majority of people got for similar offenses. Last week it was made even shorter when Turner was released from the county jail on September 2nd, 2016, just three months of time served under his belt. He is now required to register as a sex offender within the next five days in Ohio (where he is originally from and is returning) and will begin his three years probation. He is also required to stay off of alcohol and drugs for the duration of his probation, which has the possibility of being shortened as well. Police, who will be doing surprise checks on Turner periodically, say that he will be treated just like every other sex offender and will be required to re-register his address every three months so police can keep track of him.
Many people are saying that his sentence was too light. Enough people feel this way that there is a bill in the possession of California governor, Jerry Brown, which has been passed by the state government and that, if signed, will require a prison sentence. Brown has not given any indication as to whether or not he intends to sign the bill. Either way, under his Fifth Amendment rights of no double jeopardy, Turner will not fall under this new bill.
Images:
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