Documents Explain Judge’s Logic in Turner Sexual Assault Sentencing

Court documents reveal the reasoning behind Judge Aaron Persky‘s sentence toward former Stanford swimmer Brock Turnerincluding the fact that Persky followed a recommendation from the Adult Probation Department.

Persky’s sentence was criticized by some as overly lenient, but the judge laid out his rationale before announcing the sentence, per court documents.

The Business Insider reports on the newly-released court documents, which includes a quote from Persky on his reasoning for the decision. Per The Business Insider:

Before announcing the decision, Persky read from a statement made by the anonymous victim, referred to as Jane Doe. He acknowledged how the assault damaged her life – but some sections she wrote, in particular, resonated with Persky:

“So, as she writes, ‘the damage is done,’ The role of the Court at sentencing is to essentially follow the road map that our system of criminal justice sets out for the Court in sentencing decisions. It’s not completely an unbridled discretion. It is constrained by factors that are contained in the Rules of Court. And so I’ve tried to do that to the best of my ability. And my tentative decision is to grant probation, as recommended by the Adult Probation Department, with the defendant to serve six months in county jail and to comply with the recommendations of probation as contained in the report, as will be slightly modified.”

Turner was convicted this spring of three sexual assault charges, and was sentenced to six months in jail just a few weeks ago.

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Bill
7 years ago

MY experience has been that in cases of real drunken sex, it’s usually the woman who drags the man into bed – he’s too befuddled by booze to even get his mojo up much but he tries because, after all, she’s a woman and he’s supposed to try to please her.
In this case he was in the middle of the consensual sex act, at which point all people are out of touch with the world, and she went unconscious, unbeknownst to him, and he finished the sex act in good faith. How many tired middle aged men have sex with their tired wives, after the kids have finally gone to bed, only to discover that the wife has… Read more »

College swimmer
Reply to  Bill
7 years ago

Sex without consent is rape, so your wife example is indeed rape. Your experiences definitely are not like today’s college campus experiences. On top of that legal cases are all about the facts, not what yours or anyone else’s previous experiences have been (No, I am not saying case law here, I specifically said others experiences). And my question to you, Bill, is how do you know it was a consensual act? Were you there? Did you hear her say yes? Are you saying because she allegedly kissed him, and danced with him that means sex is ok? See that, there in lies the problem with today’s rape culture. Until you get consent from your partner, don’t have sex. Simple.… Read more »

j hubee
7 years ago

This is just more propaganda. Three months in jail for three felony counts of violent rape. The real story is more preferential treatment for the rich and famous. The poor get gunned down in the streets, for heinous crimes like jay walking, or playing with toy guns. The entire criminal justice is broken, by greedy judges, crooked lawyers, and killer cops. Real justice has become a joke, just ask Lindsay Lohan, Affluenza teen, crooked Clinton, or crooked cops and the rigged grand jury system.

jman
Reply to  j hubee
7 years ago

ok, i’m no fan of Brock Turner….but i’m tired of everyone getting the conviction wrong. It was not violent rape or any type of rape. It was attempted rape. I’m not saying he would or would not have completed the act…but it was NOT a rape conviction

dmswim
Reply to  jman
7 years ago

You are correct, but it’s a still a violent sexual assault. He used his hand instead of his genitalia.

Swimfan1
Reply to  jman
7 years ago

JMAN, you need to look up the dictionary definition of rape. Perhaps reading it will convince you to change your mind. Rape: “unlawful sexual intercourse or any other sexual penetration of the vagina, anus, or mouth of another person, with or without force, by a sex organ, other body part, or foreign object, without the consent of the victim. …

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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