Former Stanford student Brock Turner was sentenced to six months in jail and three years of probation for rape charges that could have yielded up to 14 years in prison.
However, the damaging effects that his decisions have had on his victim will last longer than twenty minutes, or six months. They will last her a lifetime, which she so eloquently pointed out in her open letter to her assailant, posted on the Washington Post, by stating: “We cannot forgive everyone’s first sexual assault … The seriousness of rape has to be communicated clearly. We should not create a culture that suggests we learn that rape is wrong through trial and error.”
After news of his lofty sentence was released, outrage filled the Internet, most of these complaints focused on whether or not his impressive accomplishments impacted his outcome.
The judge on duty believed he made the right decision, though, in hopes Turner’s life would not be too greatly affected. In other words, he wanted to make sure Turner would be able to handle this difficult situation, the situation that he put himself in. In turn, he forgot the battles that the victim will be facing for the rest of her life.
Before this incident, Brock A. Turner has lived the life of any typical aspiring swimmer in the United States. Just look at his high school and college swimming records, which are easily accessible for anyone who cares to find them online.
However, the opportunities sent his way were what distinguishes him from all other swimmers his age. His acclaimed high school in Ohio prepared him to get a cushy acceptance into the rigorous swimming program at Stanford, which put him on track for the Olympics. Once again, the familiar story of a wealthy kid whose parents were able to afford him every opportunity imaginable for success, escapes the punishments that any “normal” boy his age would receive.
Now, the former Stanford swimmer will not be recognized for his swimming talents or for being a prospect for the Olympics, rather, he is in the spotlight due to his choice to rape a 23 year old girl behind a dumpster of a frat party.
For starters, let’s just negate every argument that the victim was “asking for it” for a few reasons. First, she was only there to support and keep her younger sister safe at the party where the rape happened.
Second, she was not dressed in a way that would make her look, as stated before, like “she was asking for it”, not that any outfit merits that sort of response. In fact, her younger sister even made fun of her as they were leaving the party because she was wearing a sweater that made her look like a “librarian”.
Thirdly, the court records made it extremely obvious that Turner’s story changed to her consenting after him and his lawyers realized how little the victim really did remember. However, as she states in her speech, “I was not only told that I was assaulted, I was told that because I couldn’t remember, I technically could not prove it was unwanted… Worst of all, I was warned [by her lawyers], because he now knows you don’t remember, he is going to get to write the script. He can say whatever he wants and no one can contest it” (Washington Post).
Now that we are clear, that this young victim did not invite Turner’s actions due to her style (how is this even an argument, I mean, really?) we can proceed to move on to my next point. Which is that this cannot be classified as a case where the girl just changed her mind about wanting to get with a guy and decided to call the situation rape afterwards. As records indicate, when the victim was found, she had a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit, making it impossible for her to consent to any sexual relations. In reality, she could barely speak at that level of intoxication.
The last and final argument for Brock Turner is that he is a young, accomplished athlete who made a mistake, so his punishment should take into consideration his lifetime of good decisions. However, a lifetime of good decisions does not make up for one horrible one. Moreover, reports indicate that the only reason Turner even stopped was because of two Swedish graduate students (heroes) who were biking by. After seeing Turner on top of what appeared to be a lifeless body, they took action, proving that he (Turner) had no intention of stopping or helping the victim at all.
Brock Turner ended up pleading not guilty to the charges against him, despite statements from him that even though his blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit, he was still able to recognize how drunk the victim was and was still able to walk and talk normally.