In early January, Brock Turner, student and swimmer at Stanford University, was caught raping an unconscious women behind a dumpster outside a a fraternity house. During the trial, Turner was convicted of three felony counts of sexual assault. In the state of California a person found guilty of rape can be sentenced up to 6 to 8 years and even more if the victim is 14 years old or younger. This was not the case for Brock Turner. The judges ruling on this case is what really brought the nations attention to Brock Turner. The judge only sentenced Turner to six months..SIX MONTHS.. for raping an unconscious women. The reasons for such a low sentence was because the judge thought it would have a "severe impact" on Turner.
The sad part is that Turner did not even serve the whole six months. This past Friday he was released from a California jail, and walked out with the press waiting like he was some sort of celebrity. This entire story just makes me sick. The victim of this situation is the person who is really feeling the "severe impact" and her life will be changed forever. Meanwhile, Turner barely gets a slap on the wrist.
So what happens now? Does Turner continue his life like nothing every happened? I feel like he will, just because of the simple fact that he never really had any true consequences. I hate to bring up race once again but this case was once again another example of white privilege in America.
I am definitely not defending any one who has raped anyone but there have been many cases where African American men were found guilty of rape and were immediately given the 6 to 8 year sentences and sometimes more without hesitation. What makes Turner so different ? If someone rapes another person, that person should rot in jail. There are also many cases where African American men were falsely accused of rape and still went to jail. Just recently, a promising college football player was released after it was proved that he, in fact, did not rape the woman.
In all aspects of the justice system, minorities are always mistreated. It is clearly shown in this rape case. I just wanted to bring to light that the problems we have now are deeper than just police brutality. While Brock Turner served 3 months for something that he actually did there are men in jail for years that are innocent. When will we have change ?
