When you read the sentencing statements in support of Stanford University rapist Brock Turner, you begin to notice a common thread: denial. Denial not that it happened, but that he deserves to be punished.
His friend wrote it, as did his father and, of course, so did the 20-year-old himself. Now we know there were a host of other supporters who felt the same, among them his grandparents.
The Stanford University swimmer was last week sentenced to just six months in prison, after a jury found him guilty of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman outside a fraternity party in January 2015. The seemingly lenient sentence – the maximum penalty is 14 years – has sparked global outrage and a campaign to have Judge Aaron Persky recalled from the bench.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Turner’s maternal grandparents, Carolyn and Richard Bradfield, were unable to attend the trial or last Thursday’s sentencing due to health reasons, however they wrote to Judge Aaron Persky in support of their grandson.
“We were shocked, and stunned by the outcome and left to the only thing we could do – hold each other and cry,” they wrote of his conviction. “Brock is the only person being held accountable for the actions of other irresponsible adults.”
It is unclear to whom they were referring as “irresponsible adults”.
Top Comments
In my younger and somewhat irresponsible university years even drunk as a skunk at a party I knew what a rejection was and would, at worst, go and sulk. Even the de-inhibiting effect of alcohol doesn't disguise the difference between a "yes" and a "nick off you idiot". As for girls who were flaked out, well they'd just get put in a chair in the corner. I have no sympathy for him at all.
He has a conviction for under age drinking for which he recieved no consequences and which obviously did not act as a deterrant. He is a drug user (despite lying to the judge about it), and he is an abuser of women. He hasn't lost anything - he's just been found out!