Former Stanford Swimmer Convicted of Rape

^ Yes, It was sent to the Judge before sentencing, along with the father’s letter. Are there other letters?

http://jezebel.com/brock-turners-childhood-friend-blames-his-rape-convicti-1780954372

^^So far I only see screen shots of the letter. This is the easiest one to read I’ve found.

*The letter was posted on Twitter by Michele Dauber, the Stanford law professor who helped draft new university procedures for penalizing sexual violence. * Dauber did NOT write the letter. She posted the letter.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/06/05/3784913/stanford-sexual-assault-dad-letter/

I am sorry for the confusion last night about who wrote the letter. Although the name of the writer is in all the articles, I can’t bring myself to put it in a public forum. I really feel some older person should have protected her from herself.

As others note in comments sections below postings of the letter, I guess this is a comment on the social circle in which the rapist lives.

eta: I honestly don’t believe I know any young women who think like that. If they do, they are smart enough not to share those thoughts in public. I guess the letter was never supposed to be public?? Is this public information available to anyone who requests it?

@alh Yes, these letters are public, as is everything filed in conjunction with a criminal trial, unless the judge has ordered that it be redacted or sealed for some reason. Had there not been such a short sentence, there likely wouldn’t have been much interest in the letters filed. The LA Times reported excerpts from other letters, including from his grandparents and sister.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-stanford-rape-brock-turner-letters-20160606-snap-htmlstory.html

I think it’s clear from the letters that Turner will continue to believe he is the victim here and that he will learn nothing significant. His whole family and social circle is telling him he made a drunken mistake that shouldn’t be punished. I’m sure they would feel quite differently if a drunk driver crashed into their car, or another drunk person assaulted someone in their family.

Someone asked if he will have to serve probation in CA. It depends on the terms of probation but that is typically the case. However, he can request to serve his probation elsewhere.

There seems to be an “affluenza” meme floating around. What did / does the Turner family do for a living?

I think the “privilege” in this case is white and cherubic-looking, not socioeconomic, personally. I keep trying to envision this with different “characters” to see how it feels differently.

Ms. Rasmussen’s characterization as Stanford as one of many universities that “market themselves as the biggest party schools in the country,” makes her interpretation of events even less credible.

Interpreting his conviction as an excess of political correctness - I have no words for that.

Someone fixed Brock’s father’s letter to what it should have said (sorry, I can’t figure out how to copy and paste the actual letter):

https://mic.com/articles/145425/one-tweet-destroys-the-stanford-rapist-s-dad-s-disgusting-defense-of-his-son#.j0zaFQwhW

I don’t care that others knew this guy to be a “nice guy”. Folks often don’t know how a friend will treat someone in a more intimate situation, particularly when under the influence.

Heck, everyone around Scott Peterson thought he was a great guy, yet he killed his pregnant wife. None of his family, in laws, or social circle suspected him until it came out that he was having an affair (which they also first couldn’t believe).

Anyway, while everyone knows the sentence was too light for this rape, the fact is that this guy will serve a life sentence in many ways. He may not be behind bars, but his career plans (being a surgeon) are totally out, along with most other career options. With this on his record, he’s virtually unemployable.

It may not be the sentence we all think he should get (6 months jail), but in many ways he’ll serve a life term.

Prayers for the victim and all assault victims.

I just read the victim’s letter. It is heartbreaking. It is really is mind-boggling that the judge accepted the probation department’s recommendation after reading that letter and hearing her testify to the same in court.

@pizzagirl Dad is a civilian contractor for the Air Force; Mom is a surgery nurse. They are definitely affluent, upper middle class people, in a high socio-economic bracket (both college educated, for example). They paid for a private defense attorney. They have engaged one of the top criminal attorneys in the state (Dennis Riordan) for the appeal. Riordan represented Barry Bonds.

Although most of the court records are public, I don’t think the probation department’s sentencing memos are. @LionsMum can correct me if I’m wrong.

@nottelling The letters from friends and family are not part of the probation department’s sentencing memo. The actual probation report is not part of the public record, you are right. There are some other documents that aren’t public – for example, financial information for people requesting a PD. The letters are submitted in advance as part of a sentencing hearing, and sometimes are even read aloud in court.

I think this is a pretty short sentence. However, I continue to think that you can’t really understand it unless you know what kind of sentences are handed down for first offenses for other serious crimes. A judge who hears criminal cases sees a lot of crimes, and he won’t necessarily think that this crime is qualitatively worse than a lot of other crimes, like robbery, burglary, malicious wounding, aggravated assault, and many others. If, as I suspect, a lot of people convicted of these other crimes (or lesser crimes to which they plead) are given short sentences or probation, that creates context for this case. If a kid from a poor black neighborhood beats up an old lady and takes her money, and then gets probation because it’s a first offense, is there a national outcry about the lenient sentence? Not that I’ve ever seen.

They are appealing?

@LionsMum is Turner appealing the 6 month sentence?

@Hunt This guy was convicted of three violent felonies. Even if it was a first offense, this sentence is extraordinarily light, especially for an adult offender. Prisons in CA are full of people serving much longer sentences for first offenses – you don’t get a pass for a first offense especially if it is a violent felony. Rather, if you are a repeat offender you are subject to higher penalties.

Re the appeal – Turner is appealing the conviction itself.

From the Grandparents’ letter -

Seriously??? Sometimes I wonder if all of this is a joke. There was that FB site, Brock for the Olympics 2016, that some people thought was satire but it sounds an awful lot like these letters and was around before these letters were made public. And, the site was taken down, which seems to indicate that it was NOT satire.

I feel like I’m living in an alternate reality reading these letters. Ribeye steak? Promiscuity?

Also, the LA Times article mentions that the judge can’t comment because Turner has appealed the verdict. So, no jail time until after the appeal? Could the appeal backfire and give him more jail time?

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jonri wrote:
So, no, I don’t assume that the judge knows more than we do and that the sentence here was fair. I think the judge belongs to the “if you were dumb enough to leave your car keys in the car with the door unlocked, you deserved to have your car stolen” school of thought.

@ucbalumnus response:

Being careless about risk of crime certainly makes one more likely to be a victim of crime. But it does not mean that the criminal should get a lesser sentence for picking an easy victim (e.g. a car thief who steals a car that has the key where it is easily found


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Very true. The sentence should be the same. And, yes, being careless does make one more likely to be a victim of crime, but the criminal should still get the same punishment. It’s not “victim blaming” to acknowledge that certain behaviors can make one more a target for crime…rape, assault, murder, robbery, etc.

@greenwitch He can ask that the sentence be suspended pending appeal. It’s not common for a sentence to be suspended pending appeal of a violent felony, but it could happen.

@Hunt - in a case near me a man was recently given a 30 year sentence as a first time offender for sexually assaulting a child. No parole or probation. He had fondled a girl 3 times at an age when she didn’t know it was wrong and they caught him a few years later. 30 years.

Thanks, @LionsMum. Yes, I know that the letters are not part of the sentencing memo. But someone asked if the entire record was made public, and I just wanted to point out that an important part of the record – the probation department’s sentencing memo that recommended the sentence that the judge imposed – is not part of the public record and hence we cannot read it.