Scathing letter saying ‘punishment does not fit the crime’ comes after judge was scrutinized for giving Brock Turner a significantly lenient sentence

A juror in the Stanford sexual assault case said the “punishment does not fit the crime” in a scathing letter to the judge who issued a lenient sentence – widening the international scandal surrounding violence on college campuses.

A male juror who convicted former Stanford athlete Brock Turner of three felonies for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman outside of a fraternity party has released a letter to judge Aaron Persky. In it he says the sentence of six months in jail “makes a mockery of the whole trial and the ability of the justice system to protect victims of assault and rape”.

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The anonymous letter, published by the local paper Palo Alto Weekly, comes after two weeks of intense scrutiny surrounding Persky’s decision to give the 20-year-old a sentence that was significantly lighter than the minimum of two years in state prison prescribed by law.

After the 23-year-old victim’s statement on the trauma of the assault and trial went viral, critics of the judge announced a formal recall campaign against Persky, who justified his decision by noting that prison would have a “severe impact” on the defendant.

Although the jury concluded that Turner had sexually penetrated an intoxicated and unconscious person with a foreign object and committed assault with intent to rape, Turner has continued to argue that the encounter was consensual.

In one of Persky’s controversial remarks, he appeared to minimize the significance of the jury’s guilty verdict, saying that it should not count against Turner that he has a different version of the events.

[Ruling] makes a mockery of the whole trial and the ability of the justice system to protect victims of assault and rape Male juror

“The trial is a search for the truth. It’s an imperfect process. And there’s ambiguity at each stage of the proceedings. Once a jury renders a verdict, everybody is bound by that verdict. Everybody must accept the verdict, including Mr Turner,” Persky said. “But I’m not convinced that his lack of complete acquiescence to the verdict should count against him with respect to an expression of remorse because I do find that his remorse is genuine.”

In his letter, the juror slammed Persky for these comments, writing, “It seems to me that you really did not accept the jury’s findings. We were unanimous in our finding of the defendant’s guilt and our verdicts were marginalized based on your own personal opinion.”

In order to justify giving Turner only six months in county jail, the judge had to determine that this was an “unusual case where the interests of justice would best be served” by a lenient sentence.

The juror further criticized Persky’s justification, writing, “The unfortunate fact is, these circumstances are not unusual. Women like Ms Doe suffer daily from similar crimes and I fear your sentence will make these victims less willing to report their attacks. This punishment does not fit the crime.”

Turner is expected to only spend three months in jail and is scheduled for release in September.

The juror, who served on a jury of eight men and four women, noted that he is an immigrant and that he was appalled that the criminal justice system would fail to hold Turner accountable:

Personally I have absolutely no doubt that Mr. Turner is guilty as charged and as convicted on all three counts. The predominantly male jury reached consensus of guilt on all three counts within two days of deliberation. In light of that quick and decisive finding, I was absolutely shocked and appalled when I heard on June 2 about the minimal sentence you announced that Mr. Turner would serve for this crime. After the guilty verdict I expected that this case would serve as a very strong deterrent to on-campus assaults but with the ridiculously lenient sentence that Brock Turner received, I am afraid that it makes a mockery of the whole trial and the ability of the justice system to protect victims of assault and rape. Clearly there are few to no consequences for a rapist even if they are caught in the act of assaulting a defenseless, unconscious person. I recently became an American citizen after being in the country for over 30 years. This was my first experience as a juror and frankly I am disappointed.

Persky, who is also facing backlash from lawmakers and attorneys who have had previous gripes about his decisions, has said he is barred from commenting on the case while an appeal is pending.

