Stanford University Rape Case

Overview

The Stanford University Rape Case refers to the trial of former Stanford University student Brock Turner for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman near the Kappa Alpha fraternity house on campus in January 2015. The criminal case became the subject of an online controversy following the conviction of Turner in June 2016, particularly in regard to the length of the prison term and letters of statements issued by both the victim and Turner's father.

Background

On January 18th, 2015, Brock Turner, a freshman student and star swimmer at Stanford University, was arrested on charges of multiple sexual assault charges after two passing graduate students witnessed him on top of an unconscious and partially clothed woman behind a fraternity house. Upon being spotted, Turner attempted to flee the scene, but he was chased down and brought under control by the witnesses until the police arrived on the scene. Following his arrest, the victim was taken to a hospital where she regained consciousness.

Notable Developments

Trial

In March 2015, Turner pleaded not guilty to the rape charges, while admitting that he had removed the victim’s underwear, penetrated her with his hands and touched her breasts. Furthermore, Turner claimed in his testimony that the woman seemed to be enjoying herself and rubbed his back during the encounter.

Conviction

On March 30th, 2016, a jury found Turner guilty of three charges, including assault with intent to rape an intoxicated woman, sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object. On June 2nd, Turner was sentenced to six months in county jail and three years of probation by the Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky. In addition, Turner was registered as a sex offender and enrolled in a sex offender rehabilitation program.

Victim's Open Letter

On June 3rd, 2016, BuzzFeed^[1] published a 13-page open letter from the unnamed victim, only identified under the pseudonym "Emily Doe," to her Brock Turner. The statement, which was also read out loud by the victim at the sentencing of her attacker in court, details the invasive procedures she had to face in the aftermath of the assault and discusses how the event negatively impacted her life. The following day, the letter reached the front page of the /r/TrueReddit^[2] subreddit. In the first 72 hours, the letter gathered upwards of 5.1 million views and the Reddit post received more than 2,700 votes (85% upvoted).

[…] Instead of taking time to heal, I was taking time to recall the night in excruciating detail, in order to prepare for the attorney’s questions that would be invasive, aggressive, and designed to steer me off course, to contradict myself, my sister, phrased in ways to manipulate my answers. Instead of his attorney saying, Did you notice any abrasions? He said, You didn’t notice any abrasions, right? This was a game of strategy, as if I could be tricked out of my own worth. The sexual assault had been so clear, but instead, here I was at the trial, answering questions like:

Father's Letter of Plea

On June 5th, 2016, Stanford University's law professor Michele Dauber released an excerpt from a letter of plea filed by Dan Turner, the defendant's father, to the judge presiding over the sentencing in the case, in which he argued that his son should not be incarcerated and the probation was a fair punishment for his actions. Additionally, he claimed that his son's lack of appetite and sex offender registration were a "steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life," a statement which quickly went viral and triggered a flood of outrage in the social media, with many criticizing its language for downplaying the gravity of the crime and others citing it as an example that illustrates the deep-rooted nature of rape culture on college campuses in the United States.

Online Petitions

Following the delivery of the verdict, multiple petitions were launched to call for the removal of Aaron Persky, the judge who sentenced Turner to six months in county jail despite the prosecutor's' recommendation for six years of prison term, from the bench. On June 4th, Maria Ruiz, a nurse from Miami, Florida, started a petition on Change.org calling for the removal of Persky from the bench. Within 72 hours, the petition accrued more than 642,000 supporters.

"Despite a unanimous guilty verdict, three felony convictions, the objections of 250 Stanford students, Jeff Rosen the district attorney for Santa Clara, as well as the deputy district attorney who likened Turner to "a predator searching for prey," Judge Persky allowed the lenient sentence suggested by the probation department. Turner has shown no remorse and plans to attempt to overturn his conviction. 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. He also failed to send the message that sexual assault is against the law regardless of social class, race, gender or other factors. Please help rectify this travesty to justice."

On June 6th, Michele Dauber, Stanford University's law professor who released the excerpt from the plea letter written by Turner's father to Judge Persky, launched a website for the campaign against Judge Persky under the domain RecallAaronPersky.com, in collaboration with the Progressive Women Silicon Valley State PAC.

Censorship of Brock Turner Posts

On June 7th, Gizmodo reported that several posts about Brock Turner have disappeared from Facebook, including an image macro shaming Turner as a convicted rapist that was originally posted on Imgur and subsequently went viral on the social networking platform (shown below).

That same day, Facebook issued a statement in response to the complaints, which confirmed that at least one notable post about Brock Turner was removed in error. Within hours of Facebook's response, the aforementioned post in question was restored online.

“This content was removed in error, and we are currently working to restore it. Our team processes millions of reports each week, and we sometimes get things wrong. We’re very sorry about this mistake."

Judge Aaron Persky's Reassignment

On August 23rd, the East Bay Times^[19] reported that Judge Aaron Persky announced he would recuse himself from appeal proceedings man convicted of possessing child pornography. Two days later, Presiding Judge Rise Pichon released a brief statement announcing that Persky would be reassigned to hearing only civil cases at his own request:

"While I firmly believe in Judge Persky's ability to serve in his current assignment, he has requested to be assigned to the civil division, in which he previously served. Judge Persky believes the change will aid the public and the court by reducing the distractions that threaten to interfere with his ability to effectively discharge the duties of his current criminal assignment."^[20]

The switch, effective on September 6th, will remain for a least one year, after which he may be rotated back to criminal cases. Additionally, the reassignment will not change a push for his recall in November 2017 led by the group Recall Judge Aaron Persky.^[21]

Brock Turner's Release

On September 2nd, three months into his six month sentence, Brock Turner was released from jail. His release caused more public outrage as demonstrators met Turner outside the jail as he exited (video below). The footage of Turner leaving prison became another viral video, which appeared on numerous news outlets and online.

Criminology Textbook

On September 11th, 2017, Imgur ^[22] user AegonTargaryenTheSixthOfHisName posted a photograph from the criminology textbook Introduction to Criminal Justice, 2nd edition. In the picture, Brock Turner's mugshot appeared next to the definition of the word "Rape." The mugshot is captioned:

"Brock Turner, a Stanford student who raped and assaulted an unconscious female college student behind a dumpster at a fraternity party, was recently released from jail after serving only three months. Some are shocked at how short this sentence is. Others who are more familiar with the way sexual violence has been handled in the criminal justice system are shocked that he was found guilty and served any time at all. What do you think?"

Within two days of posting the image, the post received more than 7,900 points and 293,000 views. On Reddit, Redditor^[23] VeloVegan posted the entry on the /r/JusticeServed subreddit, where it received more than 39,000 points (86% upvoted) and 4,000 comments.

The following day, the fact-checking website Snopes ^[24] verified the authenticity of the photograph.

Persky's Brown v. Board of Education Comments

On May 8th, 2018, Judge Persky addressed a press conference in Palo Alto and compared his sentencing of Brock Turner to the desegregation of public schools in the United States.^[25] He said:

"Brown v. Board of Education was unpopular in many states. Imagine for a moment if those federal judges had been faced with judicial recall in the face of that unpopularity. We ask judges to follow the rule of law, not the rule of public opinion."

Speaking to BuzzFeed,^[26] Stanford Law School Professor Michele Dauber denounced the comparison, calling it "absurd."

"In Brown, the Supreme Court bravely ruled with the powerless against the powerful. In Brock Turner's case, Persky did the exact opposite," she said.

Denial of Appeal

On August 8th, 2018, The California Court of Appeals denied Turner's lawyers motion for an appeal in their client's case.^[26] The basis for the appeal, their lawyers claimed, was that Turner was only guilty of "sexual outercourse," which did not involve penile contact and that both parties were clothed, despite two statements from eyewitnesses and statements from medical examiners.

The court rejected the assertion. They wrote in their opinion, "While it is true that defendant did not expose himself, he was interrupted. Jurors reasonably could have inferred from the evidence described above that, if the graduate students had not stopped defendant, he would have exposed himself and raped [the victim]. Defendant argues none of his convictions is supported by sufficient evidence. That argument lacks merit."

Search Interest

External References