Luke Skywalker
Super Moderator
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Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky in 2011. He is drawing sharp criticism for sentencing former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner to only six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.(Photo: Jason Doiy, AP)
The words are raw, potent and excruciating:
“You don’t know me, but you’ve been inside me, and that’s why we’re here today,” said a 23-year-old woman in a victim impact statement in which she addresses former Stanford University student Brock Turner who assaulted her in January 2015. “You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today.”
The words are clueless, brazen and galling:
“His life will never be the one that he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve. That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life,” wrote Dan Turner in a letter lobbying for probation, not jail time, for his son.
The chasm between the two, which have<span style="color: Red;">*</span>unleashed a fury<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on social media since Turner’s sentencing<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Thursday and reports on the father's letter this week,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>is a distressing commentary on how a culture of indifference and denial is still rooted on college campuses and beyond.
When Brock Turner came to Stanford, one of the nation’s most prestigious universities in the foothills<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of Palo Alto, Calif., he was dreaming big. The three-time all-American high school swimmer and 2014 graduate of an<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Ohio<span style="color: Red;">*</span>high school saw Olympic rings in his future.
A young woman now dubbed Emily Doe also had dreams. On Jan. 17, 2015, she was spending a quiet Saturday night at home with her younger sister who was visiting for the weekend. She had wanted to stay in, watch TV and read, but given it was the last night with her sibling she agreed to attend a fraternity party. The woman, who was not a Stanford student, even joked that she was a “big mama” because she would be the oldest one there.
By 1 a.m. the next morning, her world<span style="color: Red;">*</span>would be shattered.
Turner was arrested after two graduate students found him on top of an “unmoving woman” outside Kappa Alpha fraternity, according to the Stanford Daily. He reportedly tried to flee<span style="color: Red;">*</span>but was tackled and pinned down until police arrived.
In March, a jury delivered a guilty verdict on three felony sex assault counts for Turner, who had pleaded innocent and insisted<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the woman consented to the encounter.
Prosecutors asked for six years in prison, but amazingly, five days ago,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky sentenced the former student athlete to six months in a county jail and three years of probation. Persky, a Stanford alum himself, pointed to the intense publicity around the case.
“The media attention that has been given to this case has in a way sort of poisoned the lives of the people that have been affected,” the judge said. "The question I’ve asked myself is ... ‘Is state prison for this defendant an antidote to that poison?”
A recall petition against Persky had more than 250,000 signatures Tuesday.
Even though we live in an age where Take Back the Night rallies and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>assault awareness information seem to permeate campuses, the statistics still stagger: In a survey by the Association of American Universities last year, <span style="color: Red;">*</span>23% of female college undergrads reported some form of sexual assault or misconduct due to force, threats of force or incapacitation.
Students and members of the administration at Howard University hold a rally against sexual assault on the campus April 11, 2016, in Washington, D.C. The rally was held as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Win McNamee, Getty Images)
And now comes the Turner case, troubling on many levels. A student athlete whose real remorse seems to be at the loss of his Olympic aspirations. A father who compounds the lack of accountability by painting his son as a suffering soul and the events of a January night as an intoxicated aberration. A judge whose concern for a convicted felon over an assault<span style="color: Red;">*</span>victim<span style="color: Red;">*</span>is<span style="color: Red;">*</span>baffling.
But within the darkness of this case there is a light, the eloquent words<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of a woman who learned the savage account<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of her attack<span style="color: Red;">*</span>by reading a news story one day at work. A woman who would be courageous enough to stand up in court,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>face her accuser and spare few details.
And most inspiring<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of all, a woman who would think of other young women who have endured before her and those whose pain is yet to come: “And finally, to girls everywhere, I am with you," her statement concludes. "When people doubt you or dismiss you, I am with you. I fought everyday for you. So never stop<span style="color: Red;">*</span>fighting, I believe you. Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save;<span style="color: Red;">*</span>they just stand there shining. Although I can’t save every boat, I hope that by speaking today,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>you absorbed a small amount of light."
Miller is USA TODAY's copy desk chief. Follow her on Twitter @susmiller
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