Brock Turner Case News & Update: One Million Signatures Ask Ouster of Judge Who Handed Rape Convict 6-Month Jail Sentence
One million signatures were gathered by activists who wanted to remove a Santa Clara Country judge for giving the "lenient" six-month jail term to a rape convict Brock Turner.
The former Stanford swimmer is now serving his sentence at the notorious Santa Clara County jail after he assaulted and tried to rape an unconscious woman more than a year ago. Mercury News said the public was enraged with the short period of jail time slapped on Turner by Judge Aaron Persky.
The judge defended his decision saying Turner will not be a threat to others in the community and that giving him a longer time inside the detention facility will have a "severe impact" on his life. Persky also highlighted that the former swimmer did not have any criminal record before the January 2015 incident.
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Campaign director for political blog Daily Klos, Paul Hogarth, told the same report that the petition to ouster Persky and the signatures of the people represent the "outrage in the community." He added that this is the first time that his group was able to gather the overwhelming number of votes.
Aside from this echoing call for justice, millions of people around the globe are also pushing to give the rape convict a more severe sentence stating that the incident would set a dangerous precedent for future cases like this. Despite a resounding appeal for a reevaluation of the case and Turner's sentence, the county bar association decried efforts to remove Persky from his post.
Lawyers claim that the movement of the people is already going overboard tagging this as "an assault to judicial independence." Media outlets were also sent all the documents pertaining to the case as court officials were reportedly pushed to produce such papers to the press.
There has been no reply from Persky regarding the petition as of yet.
In a similar development, 9News mentioned that the convict has also been banned for the rest of his life by USA Swimming. The organization said they have zero tolerance for sexual assault and that they have in place serious penalties for violations like this.
USA Swimming spokesperson Scott Leightman explained with The Guardian that the membership of Turner expired two years ago and after his conviction, it would not be anymore possible for him to be a member of USA Swimming.
