Judge Aaron Persky, who has faced major backlash since he sentenced former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner to just six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster back in January 2015, has been given a new judicial term, USA Today reports.
A Change.org petition to remove Persky was launched shortly after his ruling, and it has already received more than 500,000 signatures. The petition stated that “Judge Persky failed to see that the fact that Brock Turner is a white male star athlete at a prestigious university does not entitle him to leniency. He also failed to send the message that sexual assault is against the law regardless of social class, race, gender or other factors.”
Voters in California would have voted on his reelection on Tuesday, June 7, but Persky was running unopposed, according to USA Today. However, Stanford law professor Michele Dauber, who has started a formal recall website, told the paper that the controversial judge is unlikely to complete his six-year term.
“His victory will be short-lived,” Dauber told USA Today. “I am 100 percent confident we will recall him. His decision hit every woman in the state of California in the gut.
“His ruling was dangerous and wrongheaded,” Dauber added. “We need to replace him with someone who understands violence against women.”
As Us Weekly reported previously, a letter that the rape victim, now 23, read in court to Turner has since gone viral. In the powerful essay, the woman detailed how the incident changed her life, and slammed Turner’s claims of what happened that night.
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