WARNING: This article deals with an account of rape/sexual assault and may be triggering for some readers.
“She kept saying, ‘No & stop’ but I just didn’t stop.”
“After the attack, she told me, ‘Oh God, why did you do this?’ I couldn’t even answer. I just said sorry numerous times because I just couldn’t believe I did that.”
He raped a 14-year-old girl.
He admitted it.
So why has a judge sentenced him to just five years’ probation?
Because the judge says the victim “wasn’t the victim she claimed to be”.
The judge says the victim “wasn’t a virgin”.
Texas judge Jeanine Howard is receiving worldwide criticism for her sentence of just five years’ probation for a confessed rapist.
According to CBS News, 20-year-old Sir Young was sentenced on Friday as part of a plea deal for raping a 14-year-old girl on their high school campus when he was 18.
He had faced a maximum of 20 years in prison.
Instead, as part of the probation, he will serve just 45 days – bizarrely serving two days behind bars each year beginning on October 4, the day the rape was committed.
State District judge Jeanine Howard justified the light sentence saying, “He is not your typical sex offender.”
Top Comments
I can imagine (with difficulty) circumstances in which a non-custodial sentence might be appropriate for a young rapist. I can easily imagine circumstances where the fact that the victim had lied about the eventss surrounding the attack might be relevant to the verdict (not the sentence) in a rape case. What I cannot imagine is a circumstance where the victim's prior sexual history (real or alleged) or lies to the police or even the court is relevant to the sentence for the ADMITTED rapist. That the judge referenced the victim's character in discussion of the sentencing sends an appalling and all too familiar message. There is a reason that Jill Maher's killer started his career attacking prostitutes; this view that a "less pure" victim equals a less serious crime.
Really Gretel?
There is nothing relevant in the girl's history. She said no. The guy admits he said no.
Regardless of his character, community service in a rape crisis centre is the most dangerous and offensive I've ever heard.
I hear the argument that doing community service there would be helpful for him, but rape crisis centres are not about crisis workers, and they're certainly not about rapists. They are about survivors of sexual assault. The feelings of a rapist have no place there.