To be very blunt, I don’t really care how alcohol affected this felon. He committed the crime and he’s responsible for the effects of the crime. Magical transformation of his personality or not, he committed the crime. I would love to see the language in the sentencing guidelines that directs the judge to reduce the sentence to something so entirely minimal based on his lack of sobriety. Maybe the argument might fly if he’d left her by the dumpster and she’d died there. Maybe then he’d be spared death row because he did not intentionally commit murder. But in a case where he carried out the act he intended to carry out? I just don’t see the relevance of the discussion.
For those of you pointing to the lifetime sex offender registry as a real punishment that will follow him for life, please be aware that it’s possible to be removed from the registry via a governor’s pardon or a certificate of rehabilitation. I would not be at all surprised to learn that Brock Turner’s attorneys are already planning for the right moment to seek that pardon. Everything that felon is saying suggests that he’s building his application for it.
I’m willing to bet Marian is more of an authority on her own family and how their personalities were affected by alcohol than anyone else is on their friends’ families.
While that may be true, there are too many past cases where judges let off rapists/sexual assaulters and those who committed other serious violent crimes despite having prior history of being prosecutors because of various biases which happen to favor those who happen to be athletes and/or White upper/upper-middle class suburbanites who are perceived as “clean cut” and “good old boys/girls” by the presiding judge(s).
Unfortunately, this particular presiding judge gives an appearance of having such a bias and thus, an appearance of a conflict of interest for not only being an alum of the same undergrad division as the defendant, but also a fellow athlete/former assistant coach there.
There are also negative implications from those arguing that those who aren’t upper/upper-middle class White suburban boys get a far easier break from the criminal justice system than those who don’t fall into that group.
Absolutely. It isn’t like we consider drunken murder a normal and regrettable part of college culture. It’s big, big news when a student in your college dies and there are weeks of mourning, whether it’s from suicide, a fire, a car accident, or an illness. We don’t expect that there will be a few murders every year. No one’s making excuses about, “Well, Stan was being reckless by studying alone on a Friday night, and Brad had been drinking, so it’s not like Stan had no part in getting beaten to death by a desk lamp.”
Alcohol doesn’t make normal people into murderers, because we all truly believe it’s wrong to strangle your roommate for snoring or to disembowel your teacher for giving you a bad grade, so that moral standard doesn’t go away even when we’re drunk. We don’t have multiple frat party murders a year because people get drunk and wild. Alcohol is no excuse for frat party rapes.
@momofthreeboys - I find it interesting that at the same time that you feel colleges shouldn’t address sexual assault and women should all be required to report any such assaults to the local police that you are also fine with a sentence of only six months of prison time. How can you expect women to endure the indignity of the criminal process, including an invasive physical exam, repeated retellings of the horrible incident that they endured, lost time to meetings with lawyers and court testimony, if at the end of the day, even if the assailant is convicted, he gets less time than the average drug offender?
If the victim had diabetes and was unconscious due to being in a diabetic coma or dangerously low blood sugar, I wonder if people would view the male perpetrator differently. I suspect there would be much more vitriol coming his way, his punishment would have been harsher, and there would be far less victim blaming. Same action, same state of the victim’s lack of consciousness and ability to consent, but no intimations that she somehow brought it on herself. I suspect that would be the case.
@momofthreeboys "I don’t have any knowledge if this young man is going through alcohol counseling. Actually they both should. 2 or 3 times the legal limit is alotta alcohol. "
So, you’re saying the girl should share in the boys punishment ?
I have to believe that the Facebook page is being run by someone that is not a friend or real supporter of Brock. I read the posts on that page and all of them would make a normal person even more angry at Brock. I don’t see how that page could possibly help him at all.
As far as trying to keep his face in the public I’m not sure how successful that is going to be. He looks like a ton of other guys his age. Even after looking at his picture I don’t think I would be able to pick him out. While his criminal record will always be there I think he could move somewhere else and people wouldn’t even know who he is. I checked the sex offender list before we bought our house but I don’t know if most people do that…
I will say this again… drinking is not a crime. It’s that simple. She was a legal adult. She wasn’t driving. She was allowed to drink herself silly because that is not a crime.
Not everyone that has a binge night every once in a while needs counseling. I am sure that my BAC has been 2-3x the legal limit a few times in my life because it’s easy to get there- a few shots, a few beers, little water, and bam! You’re there. And yet, when I was told that I couldn’t drink while on my meds, I stopped without a problem.
If someone took the time to actually read her victim statement, you would see that she hasn’t drank in a while and her tolerance had decreased:
It happens sometimes. ** But that doesn’t mean you have a drinking problem and it sure as hell doesn’t mean you should expect to be the victim of a crime.**
As bad as the police and courts can botch sexual assault cases, it appears that college administrations can make an even worse mess. In addition, the maximum penalty that a college administration can impose cannot include any jail or prison time or registration as a sex offender.
"have to believe that the Facebook page is being run by someone that is not a friend or real supporter of Brock. I read the posts on that page and all of them would make a normal person even more angry at Brock. "
Of course not. It’s deliberately provocative. I cannot believe any CCers would think it to be a real site put up by him or his family.
^^ I think the problem is that some of us couldn’t believe his father’s letter was for real, and it was, so who knows about what these folks might put out there on-line? I honestly can’t believe they don’t have an attorney or PR firm vetting their comments.
Have you guys read the full police reports? It sounds to me from the various witness statements that she was “roofied” There is no mention of blood work for anything but alcohol… the way this kid was behaving, attacking every female at the party… I think he has a serious problem.
