Moments before a Boulder judge was to deliver a sentence for a convicted rapist, the victim pleaded, “Have as much mercy for the rapist as he did for me the night of the sexual assault, which was none.”

Still, Judge Patrick Butler earlier this week chose not to send Austin James Wilkerson, 22, to prison. Instead, he sentenced the former University of Colorado student to a two-year work-release program at the Boulder County Jail and 20 years of probation.

Wilkerson’s sentence has outraged victim advocates and others concerned about sexual assault. They say the case is another example of the justice system caring more about a perpetrator’s future than that of the victim.

They point to the Boulder case’s similarities to a June case in California in which Brock Turner, a former Stanford University swimmer, received a six-month jail stay after he was convicted of raping a woman outside a fraternity party. In that case, the judge said he feared a longer prison sentence would have a severe impact on Turner.

An online petition asking for Butler’s recall has more than 16,000 signatures. However, Colorado judges cannot be recalled.

Before Wilkerson’s sentencing Wednesday, his victim read a letter in court, saying that her attacker made a choice to ruin his own life. She, however, had no choice in what happened on March 15, 2014, when Wilkerson attacked her while she was heavily intoxicated.

“It’s not like my life isn’t ruined or anything,” she wrote in her letter. “It’s always been about the rapist since the assault. As the victim of this sexual assault, my life has been ruined socially, psychologically, academically and financially.”

Sexual assault, a Class 3 felony in Colorado, carries a prison sentence of four to 12 years. But state law also says a sexual assault conviction is subject to indeterminate sentencing, which means Wilkerson would have served a minimum number of years but his release date would have been open-ended. A parole board would need to determine that he was fit to be released.

During the sentencing hearing, Butler explained his decision.

“I’ve struggled, to be quite frank, with the idea of ‘Do I put him in prison?’ ” Butler said, adding that he spoke to people in the prison and jail system about what kind of treatment Wilkerson would receive, according to a report in the Boulder Daily Camera.

“I don’t know that there is any great result for anybody,” Butler said. “Mr. Wilkerson deserves to be punished, but I think we all need to find out whether he truly can or cannot be rehabilitated.”

Brie Franklin, executive director of the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said the judges in the Wilkerson and Turner cases showed too much concern for the perpetrators.

Judges don’t make those types of considerations in other types of crimes, Franklin said. No one worries that a prison sentence will harm the future of a bank robber.

“It’s the idea of ‘Oh, we don’t want this one thing to ruin this perpetrator’s life,’ ” Franklin said. “It isn’t something that just happened to the perpetrator. It’s something he chose to do.

“It is disappointing this has happened again.”

The Stanford rape victim wrote a long letter explaining the damage the attack had caused in her life. In the CU case, the victim’s statement also shows how devastating a rape is and how hard it is to overcome.

She met Wilkerson through friends while drinking at a St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Wilkerson flirted with the victim, but she rebuffed his advances, according to a sentencing memorandum.

She had too much to drink, and Wilkerson told their friends that he would care for her. However, while the woman was half-conscious Wilkerson digitally and orally penetrated her and then masturbated on her, according to the memorandum.

Before reading her letter in court, the victim told the judge it had been painful to relive the trauma during the trial but she would be willing to go through it again.

“Our goal has been to have the rapist not perpetrate again, which hopefully won’t happen even with the light sentence,” she said, according to a transcript provided by the 20th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. “We get to put a face on the 1-in-4 statistics. Surprisingly, the whole ordeal has been therapeutic. I get to tell my story and not keep in bottled up. Other brave survivors of eerily familiar stories have inspired me to share my story that rape isn’t always a stranger in the bushes.”

In her statement in court, the victim told of nightmares, panic attacks and fear caused by the attack. She no longer was able to lead a normal college life, avoiding football games and parties, and choosing to study rather than celebrate her 21st birthday.

Friendships fell apart. She lost faith in the university’s ability to protect her. And the financial toll was an estimated $250,000 because it took the woman longer to graduate, she made emergency room trips because of panic attacks, paid for counseling, and wasted money on textbooks and tuition after withdrawing from classes.

“But it’s only the rapist’s life that has been ruined, right?” the victim wrote. “It’s not like I had hopes and dreams or academic and career goals.”

The worst part of the experience, the young woman wrote, was the victim-blaming. She heard it from roommates, the jury and even her mother.

“After all I’ve endured emotionally, physically, psychologically and financially, the burden of the blame still crashes down on my shoulders,” the letter said.

Victim-blaming continues to be a problem in rape cases, Franklin said. Rape is not a natural consequence of getting drunk, she said.

“I’m only going to be raped if there’s someone who is willing to rape me,” she said. “We need to focus on what the perpetrators choose to do.”

The victim concluded her letter by saying, “The rapist CHOSE to ruin his life. But like the sexual assault itself, my life has been ruined without my consent.”