Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky has reportedly been receiving violent threats against himself and his family from individuals within a growing campaign of activists who believe that the sentence handed down to Mr Turner was far too lenient, given the gravity of his crime. In 2015, Mr Turner was discovered by two witnesses as he sexually violated an unconscious 23-year-old woman behind a dumpster at Stanford University. On Thursday last week, Judge Persky sentenced Mr Turner to six months’ imprisonment on three felony counts: assault with the intent to commit rape of an intoxicated/unconscious person, penetration of an intoxicated person and penetration of an unconscious person. District Attorney Jeffrey Rosen had originally called for at least six years’ imprisonment for Mr Turner. The leniency of the sentence has sparked widespread anger on social media, as well as a petition directed to California lawmakers to have Judge Persky recalled that has so far garnered more than 577,000 signatures.
Misplaced sympathies
In particular, the online backlash against Judge Persky has taken aim at his apparent sympathy with the 20-year-old Mr Turner, a former student and elite swimmer, over his victim. According to reports in The Guardian, Judge Persky allegedly said that Mr Turner had ‘less moral culpability’ for his crimes due to his level of intoxication when the assault took place. ‘A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him. I think he will not be a danger to others,’ Judge Persky reportedly said, adding that the sentence might serve as an ‘antidote’ to the anxiety the usually high-achieving Mr Turner was feeling in the wake of the media storm surrounding the crime. ‘Judge Persky failed to see that the fact that Brock Turner is a white male star athlete at a prestigious university does not entitle him to leniency,’ reads the online petition.
Online campaign
Stanford University law professor Michelle Dauber is spearheading the campaign to have Justice Persky recalled from the bench. A Democrat, Judge Persky slid into a new six-year term on Tuesday this week after passing through the California primary elections unopposed. It would take a petition signed by at least 58,634 Santa Clara County citizens to initiate a recall process for the judge – or around 20 per cent of the County’s registered voters in November. ‘I am 100 per cent confident that we will recall him,’ Professor Dauber told USA Today, adding in the New York Times that by casting Mr Turner’s case as ‘unusual’, Judge Persky had told women on college campuses that ‘they don’t deserve the full protection of the law in the state of California.’
Sources: New York Times; Law.com
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