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Channing Tatum on Stanford Rapist Brock Turner: ‘He Should’ve Been Punished’

He’s speaking out. Channing Tatum addressed the controversial Brock Turner Stanford rape case during a new interview with Cosmopolitan magazine on Wednesday, June 22.

The Magic Mike actor, 36, sat down with Cosmo editor in chief Joanna Coles during a Facebook Live chat from the Girls’ Lounge in France, where he discussed the “very real” culture surrounding rape and sexual assault.

Channing Tatum
Channing Tatum

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“I think it’s tough. I think that rape culture is a very real thing,” he explained. “I really think it’s a horrible, horrible idea to let someone off because of possibly what they’re gonna be capable of doing. Because if you start doing that, where do you end? Where does that stop? Where does that line actually quit? I don’t think it’s right. I think [Turner] should’ve been punished, personally, but I also don’t know what the answer is to protect women, to keep you out of those situations.”

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Brock Turner
Brock Turner in a January 2015 arrest photo.

As previously reported, the former Stanford swimmer, 20, was convicted on three felony counts in March for sexually assaulting an unconscious, intoxicated woman. Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Turner to just six months in prison and claimed that a longer sentence would have a “severe impact” on the college athlete’s future. The Associated Press later reported that Turner will only serve three months of his sentence.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” Tatum said of the shortened sentence on Wednesday. “That is like if you killed someone, if you got caught red-handed murdering someone, and then just because you went to a nice school and you were a good swimmer, you somehow get a lesser sentence than what you would’ve for cold-blooded murder. I mean, that just doesn’t make any sense.”

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The Stanford rape case made national headlines after the victim, an unidentified 23-year-old woman, wrote a powerful and emotional letter to Turner, which she read aloud in court. Turner’s outraged father later submitted a letter to the judge, insisting that his son’s sentence “is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action.”

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