Summary: Publicly-deemed incompetent judge, Aaron Persky, has been removed from another rape case.
California judge, Aaron Persky, has shown leniency to one convicted rapist, and now prosecutors won’t give him a chance to do it again. On Tuesday, Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen filed to remove Persky from a new case where a former Kaiser Permanente nurse was accused of sexually assaulting a sedated patient.
Related article: Stanford Rapist Brock Turner Set to be Released September 2
Rosen said that Persky’s lack of judgment not only with the Stanford Rapist case but others is to blame for the removal. Rosen said his office lacked confidence that Persky “can fairly participate” and that it was rare for him to seek to disqualify a judge for cases. However, he said this is not the last time he would consider removing Persky in future cases.
While presiding over Brock Allen Turner’s rape case, Persky gave the convicted Stanford rapist a six-month jail sentence even though a recommended minimum sentence for rape is two years in prison. Prosecutors recommended he serve a six-year prison term, but Persky said that “a prison sentence would have a severe impact” on Turner. To recap, two Stanford students found Turner raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster. The woman wrote an emotional letter explaining the negative impact the assault had on her, and Turner’s camp wrote character references that seemed to ooze of entitlement and lack of caring for the victim’s feelings.
Persky’s decision drew public ire, which spurned politicians such as Texas Representative Ted Poe and Vice President Joe Biden to condemn him. Additionally, a Change.org petition was started, calling for his resignation, and the petition has already received over one million signatures.
Persky’s perceived light sentence of Turner has also drawn disdain from potential jurors. Last week in an unrelated case, ten people refused to serve if he was the judge. He responded that he understood their reactions.
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Source: NPR