Brock Turner, the infamous Stanford rapist who is convicted this year of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster is scheduled to be released from a county jail on Friday, September 2. The former Stanford University student and Olympic hopeful is reportedly getting out three months early—on “good behavior.”
This disgusting news will not sit well with many around the world who were already outraged that Turner, 19, only received a mere six-month sentence in the country jail, when the crime of rape and his felony charges call for at least ten years in prison. The case received worldwide attention after Turner’s rape victim published the letter to her rapist, which she read to him in court. That letter went viral and millions, all the way up to Vice President Biden, reacted to her powerful words. The woman is known only as “Emily Doe.”
Santa Clara Judge Aaron Persky, who presided over the case and who gave the initial lenient sentence has received almost as much ridicule as the rapist himself. A petition of over a million signatures has been signed asking for Persky’s resignation.
The news of Turner’s impending release came out Monday afternoon and is already beginning to ignite social media. This sends a out horribly demeaning message to victims who are often first “raped” by their attacker then raped again and again by the courts and by society. This also sends out the dangerously wrong message to male college students who think it’s okay to get young women drunk and/or drug them—and rape them. One in three female students are raped during college. One in three.
If you or someone you know is, or has ever been, a victim of rape/sexual assault, it’s never too late to seek free support via the National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800.656.HOPE (4673) and/or by visiting the Rape, Abuse Incest National Network/RAINN.org website online. If you are in immediate danger, please call 911. You do not have to live with horror, guilt, and/or shame. If you can hold on to one thing, remember this —It. Was. Not. Your. Fault.
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