PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) — A six-month jail term for a former Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman is being decried as a slap on the wrist.
A California judge sentenced 20-year-old Brock Turner to six months in county jail and three years’ probation after the woman who was assaulted read the court an emotional statement that has gone viral.
She described how the attack left her “closed off, angry, self-deprecating, tired, irritable, empty.” Buzzfeed published her full letter, where she says she was disappointed by his sentencing.
Prosecutors had asked for a six-year prison sentence.
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky said in handing down the punishment that a longer sentence would have a “severe impact” on Turner.
Turner is a three-time All-American high school swimmer from Dayton, Ohio. He withdrew from Stanford after his January 2015 arrest.
The victim ended her letter with a message to women everywhere:
…You are important, unquestionably, you are untouchable, you are beautiful, you are to be valued, respected, undeniably, every minute of every day, you are powerful and nobody can take that away from you.