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Brock Turner

Earlier this week, we reported that convicted rapist, Brock Turner, was seeking to have his conviction overturned.

Turner's legal team are insisting that the jury was misled and ultimately exposed to misinformation which resulted in their client's conviction.

Speaking to NBC, Turner's lawyer, John Tompkins, stated the team's position, saying: ‘What we are saying is that what happened is not a crime. It happened, but it was not anywhere close to a crime.’

In response to the appeal, A Care2 petition is asking the California 6th District Court of Appeal not to overturn Brock Turner’s rape conviction.

Explaining the motivation behind the online petition, which has amassed more than 33,000 signatures so far, its creator, Kelsey Bourgeois, insists Turner is a danger to society.

"Brock Turner became famous last year when he raped an unconscious woman behind a dumpster and then was given EXTREME leniency because he was a white, male athlete at Stanford."

“Turner was literally discovered in the act of sexually assaulting a passed out drunk victim. He should have gotten 14 years in California."

"He was sentenced to six months and only served three.Now we wants off the sex offender registry. But he has shown no remorse, and 60 pages of his lawyer's appeal focuses on how drunk his victim was.

"He is a clear and present threat to people around him and he must stay on the sex offender registry.”

Comments beneath the petition point to the public's growing concerns, with one person writing: "I fear this is another step in a shocking trend where laws are beginning to mean nothing in this country."
 

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Lawyers for Brock Turner, a university student found guilty of sexual assault in 2016, have launched an appeal against his conviction.

Prosecution in the  high-profile case last year pushed for a six-year sentence against the Stanford University student, but he was sentenced to just six months, and he walked free after just three.

This week, Turner's legal team are insisting that the jury was misled and ultimately exposed to misinformation which resulted in their client's conviction

In a motion which was obtained by BuzzFeed, Turner's team argue that his trial was ‘a detailed and lengthy set of lies’.

Speaking to NBC, Lawyer John Tompkins stated the team's position, saying: ‘What we are saying is that what happened is not a crime. It happened, but it was not anywhere close to a crime.’

Indeed, during the trial, Turner's father described his son’s sexual penetration of an intoxicated person with a foreign object and his intent to commit rape of an intoxicated woman behind a dumpster as ‘20 minutes of action’.

Turner's team want him removed from the sex offender's register and his conviction overturned.

Turner wa released from prison in September 2016 for good behaviour.

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A judge, who faced considerable criticism for the lenient sentence he handed down in a recent rape case, has publicly defended his ruling.

Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky, who sentenced Brock Turned to just six months behind bars for rape last year, was vilified in the aftermath of the high-profile case.

Persky, who is facing a recall effort over the sentencing, has released a statement, and while he made no direct reference to the case which involved the Stanford student, Persky acknowledged the public's concern.

"As a prosecutor, I fought vigorously for victims. As a judge, my role is to consider both sides," he explained in his statement.

"California law requires every judge to consider rehabilitation and probation for first-time offenders," he continued. "It’s not always popular, but it’s the law, and I took an oath to follow it without regard to public opinion or my opinions as a former prosecutor.”

Turner, who will spend his life on the sex offenders' register, served just a quarter of a year at Santa Clara County jail for the crimes he committed against a young woman on Palo Alto university’s campus in January 2015 despite facing an initial 14 years at sentencing.

In a widely circulated letter written by Turner's victim at the time of the sentencing, she called for stronger sentences in an effort to deter against crimes of this nature.

"The seriousness of rape has to be communicated clearly, we should not create a culture that suggests we learn that rape is wrong through trial and error," she wrote.

"The consequences of sexual assault needs to be severe enough that people feel enough fear to exercise good judgment even if they are drunk, severe enough to be preventative."

Persky's statement has been filed with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters.

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Pinned above the bed of a young woman in the United States is a small drawing of two bicycles.

They act as a daily reminder that despite all she has endured since January 2015, there still exist heroes in her story.

Hers is a story which has, since it came to global attention at the beginning of the summer, acted as a platform for heated debate on rape culture and white male privilege.

Hers is a story of such notoriety it could have – and should have – signalled a considerable turnaround in the judicial system’s approach to rape cases.

Instead, hers became a story which compounded the well-worn argument that when it comes to victims of rape, they serve the life sentence while the perpetrator, if even convicted, is given ample opportunity to twist the facts until a rape is deduced to nothing more than drunken fumblings and crossed wires.

 

We have been taught to believe that good will always prevail, but as Brock Turner walked free from Santa Clara County jail last Friday, one can’t help but think that that saying holds as much water as ‘they all lived happily ever after’.

Brock Turner’s father described his son’s sexual penetration of an intoxicated person with a foreign object and his intent to commit rape of an intoxicated woman behind a dumpster on an American college campus last year as ‘20 minutes of action’.

And whether we want believe it or not, the American judicial system – and more specifically Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky – was of the same opinion.

Twenty minutes of action which brought the two male cyclists who happened upon it to tears, but hey, maybe they don’t know how this whole rape culture thing works.

 

While prosecution in the case pushed for a six-year sentence against the Stanford University student, Brock Turner was sentenced to just six months.

And he walked free after just three.

After stripping a young woman of her dignity, after defiling her in countless and unimaginable ways, and after buying her ‘a ticket to a planet where she lives by herself’, Brock Turner is now sleeping in his own bed.

A bed which doesn’t need a drawing of two bicycles above it because in his story, he’s the hero.

I mean, how else would you describe a young man who bravely endured a summer behind bars just because some girl couldn’t handle 20 minutes of action behind a dumpster?

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A 20-year-old college student who was found guilty of raping a young woman in a high-profile case is set for release this Friday after serving just half his prison sentence.

According to public records, Brock Turner, who was found guilty of assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated woman, sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object, and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object, will be free by the weekend.

Turner, who will spend his life on the sex offenders' register, has served just a quarter of a year at Santa Clara County jail for the crimes he committed against a young woman on Palo Alto university’s campus in January 2015 despite facing an initial 14 years at sentencing.

In a widely circulated letter written by Turner's victim, she called for stronger sentences in an effort to deter against crimes of this nature.

"The seriousness of rape has to be communicated clearly, we should not create a culture that suggests we learn that rape is wrong through trial and error," she wrote.

"The consequences of sexual assault needs to be severe enough that people feel enough fear to exercise good judgment even if they are drunk, severe enough to be preventative."

Despite the fact prosecutors sought a six-year sentence, Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky, handed down just six months – a decision which has, and continues to cause considerable controversy.

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