[TRANSCRIPT]

Melissa Yingst Huber

In January 2015, former Stanford University student and swimmer Brock Turner raped an unconscious woman behind a dumpster. He was charged with assault with intent to rape an intoxicated woman, sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object. On June 2, Judge Aaron Persky gave him 6 months in county jail and 3 years probation. If he shows good behaviour, his sentence could be shortened to 3 months.

Persky’s decision has caused the public to be outraged. His decision was made because he felt that a prison sentence would have too much of a damaging impact on Turner and felt that he would not be a threat to anyone. By the morning of June 7th, a Change petition to recall Persky obtained 191,000 signatures. The petition says that Persky failed to show that rape is illegal no matter the gender and race of the perpetrator.

Stanford University released a statement on the 6th which said that they have tried all they could to assure that justice was served.