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BROCK TURNER IS set to be released from prison today after serving half of a six-month sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster in 2015.
The former Stanford University student was convicted of three felony sexual assault charges, including assault with the intent to commit rape, in March.
The Ohio native is being released three months early due to “good behaviour”. Turner tried to flee the scene of the assault, but students tackled and pinned him down until police arrived. He faced a maximum of 14 years in prison.
The lenient sentence sparked outrage in the US and beyond, with calls for Judge Aaron Persky to be impeached.
During the trial, Persky spoke of the negative effect the conviction would have on Turner, who had been attending Stanford on a swimming scholarship.
The judge will no longer oversee criminal cases, at his own request. Efforts to remove him from the bench are still moving forward.
Letter
Turner’s victim released a powerful letter in June about her experience, via Buzzfeed News.
She wrote: “He has done irreversible damage to me and my family during the trial and we have sat silently, listening to him shape the evening. But in the end, his unsupported statements and his attorney’s twisted logic fooled no one. The truth won, the truth spoke for itself.
My life has been on hold for over a year, a year of anger, anguish and uncertainty, until a jury of my peers rendered a judgment that validated the injustices I had endured. Had Brock admitted guilt and remorse and offered to settle early on, I would have considered a lighter sentence, respecting his honesty, grateful to be able to move our lives forward. Instead he took the risk of going to trial, added insult to injury and forced me to relive the hurt as details about my personal life and sexual assault were brutally dissected before the public. He pushed me and my family through a year of inexplicable, unnecessary suffering, and should face the consequences of challenging his crime, of putting my pain into question, of making us wait so long for justice.
US Vice President Joe Biden wrote an open letter to the woman after reading her words, telling her: “I am in awe of your courage for speaking out — for so clearly naming the wrongs that were done to you and so passionately asserting your equal claim to human dignity.
And I am filled with furious anger — both that this happened to you and that our culture is still so broken that you were ever put in the position of defending your own worth.
During the trial, Turner’s father pleaded with the court for leniency for his son, saying: “[Brock] will never be his happy-go-lucky self with that easygoing personality and welcoming smile.
“His life will never be the one that he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve. That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life.”
This week Californian lawmakers passed legislation that will impose mandatory prison sentences for those convicted in sexual assault cases — including instances in which the victims were unconscious or too intoxicated to consent.
- Contains reporting from AP
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I though the dole covered that for them..
@Big bad bull: ……. Big clear out of FF, FG and Green TDs on the way. SF will get a chance to clear the swamp. If they dont do it welk then next gen TDs will get a chance. We’ve tolerated self enriching spoofers for too long.
@Big bad bull: I hope you’re doing OK…..for a selfish prig.
@Big bad bull: I scrolled down to the comments to say exactly what you said. And the swines think long and hard about paying student nurses, who actually do something.
@Big bad bull: sad comment…
@Big bad bull: if anyone can draw the dole artists can.
@Big bad bull: it doesn’t
I had almost forgotten the Greens were actually part of the Government, then again I would forgive anyone for thinking FF and FG weren’t in Government either.
Just not good enough… Imagine lockdown without music, photography etc… One year ago musicians took to live streaming gigs out of love for their profession and to bring a bit of joy to friends and family during the darkest days and most are still going living off a few tips here and there… I look forward to the amount of quality live gigs that will be on as these artists try to get back on their feet… The government have failed them big time
What about people who have been out of work for the last 12 months and this coming week have Revenue looking for LOCAL PROPERTY TAX which FF said they would reform but silence as usual.
@Paul Howard: They deferred last years payment till July 21st, ask your local TD will it be deferred again? Why are the looking for it this week?
@Ally Mc Culladgh: Sorry deferred until July 2021
@Ally Mc Culladgh: Not correct – due 22 March 2021
https://www.revenue.ie/en/property/local-property-tax/is-your-property-liable-lpt/what-are-the-key-dates-for-lpt.aspx
@Ally Mc Culladgh: To pay the Arts??
@Ally Mc Culladgh: They will tell you it’s a privilege to get a mortgage, pay a mortgage, struggle to pay it, pay property tax for actually eventually owning a house, Oh! And to supplement their big pensions and salary increases.
Everyone is fed up ,Mehole, with your crumb throwing.
@Peter Bell: it’s Catherine Martin
@Peter Bell: it’s Catherine Martin ya dope
@Paul Doyle: Ah, in fairness, I mistook it for Micheal Martin as well, at first. For some reason, the ‘former music teacher and singer’ bit had me imagining him lashing out rebel songs down at his local boozer. (I guess Lockdown will do that to ya, lol.)
@Paul Doyle: THE BEST PART OF YOU RAN DOWN YOUR OUL FELLAS LEG.
@Peter Bell:end
@Peter Bell:
What a childish comment.
@Peter Bell:
childish comment
@Peter Bell: seriously? I’ve seen a lot of juvenile comments on the journal, but this one definitely takes the biscuit.
@Peter Bell: Did your parents ever ask you to run away from home?
@Peter Bell: di ck he ad
@Peter Bell: what about the clowns in SF? Surely the cost of the face paint should be covered?
@Ro-your-nan: what?
Is Bono on the PUP
@James Fox: No, his accountants will be advising him to buy failing businesses and increase his assets, out of his off-shore tax-free funds ….
@Martin Galvin:
any proof of anything illegal?
@Martin Galvin: same accountant that that advised U2 to donate €10,000,000 to COVID relief efforts in Ireland??
@Martin Galvin: if you do tiny a fraction of the positive things in your life that Bono has you will be doing well.
@john doe: Martin is just another one of those miserable half wits who knock every Irish success story out of pure jealousy.
You can protest our artists by doing your job, stop allowing 10,000 into this country every week
This will help reduce the number of covid cases
And that will allow restrictions to be relaxed
@trebloc01: what do you mean?
Surely they can draw the dole or get a job in a shop at the moment.
It’s laughable listening to the likes of Panti whining about his situation when we know full well he hasn’t applied to Lidl for a job even though they are hiring.
Govt could look at viability of giving participants in this hard-hit sector subsidised or even free broadband service to enable showcasing of creative wares to a potential global audience.
I’m sure the Minister would appreciate the sentiment in this little gem…
“Our culture is more shaped by the arts and humanities than it often is by politics”
Jim Leach
The people of Ireland talk the talk when it comes to the arts but blame them for being lazy at the same time give proper support to people in the arts and really embrace what it does for us and ireland
@Dermot Wynne: too vague Dermot – you need to be more specific. I’m arty – what kind of subsidy would you tax someone else for to pay for me? How much do I get?
@Ro-your-nan: your arty? Swear to God dealz doing a colouring book with crayons for about €3.
What about the companies that supply the actual sound equipment to the artists? Are they covered by this payment? We are 42 years in the industry and we’re on the brink of closing permanently. Don’t forget the sound hire guys!
I don’t think money is the only issue for artists, is it? Artists usually need to perform, and the audience is important to them. And we, the audience, also miss seeing artists performing live, not behind a computer screen. Concerts, theatre etc.
Artists my @55. Live off your work without any subsidy or take a running jump. Pretentious nonsense.
@Lotus: so write your own songs then.
@Drunk in Dublin: You’ve missed the point
Surely he means ‘homeless’ instead of ‘artists’
@P Mc G: *she
@P Mc G: took a while for the mandatory imaginative comment “wadabout da hooomelisss?”
Common the shiners …every time a green opens their entitled mouth another 100 votes go to SF
Sine Fine are an absolute joke of an opposition party. Always sitting on the fence with no backbone.
When a country is been pulled apart by government restriction this supposedly big change party are happy to talk but bring zero new solutions to the table.
For once people see properly tired of the usual so so politic’s but unfortunately the new change is very much of the same. Stand up now and lead on forever dream.
@Tom Hickey: That’s just not true. SF have introduced a number of bills attempting to make lives better for people in this country but FFG vote down anything they propose out of sheer spite and an inability to put party politics aside and work for the greater good. You’re just parroting what you’ve heard without putting any thought into it whatsoever. There are lots of issues you could take a swipe at SF with but this lie isn’t one of them.
12 months later..
A similar type scheme in 18th century UK lead to the industral revolution. Loads of clergymen were given a basic income, and in those days you needed a 3rd level degree to be a clergyman. Because most of them had no interest in religion ( it was just a title for power an influence they were after) they had little to do except spend time on their hobbies which included research and experimentation.
While the church pay no tax at all
Yes UBI for artists to give them security, 100% agree, they do important work. But if annual earnings go above the yearly minimum wage due to selling artwork etc then they need to be paying back their UBI money.
This is NOT what a “universal basic income” is. It’s the first word! Call it a grant, whatever, but it’s not remotely UBI and it’s a willful distortion of the term to call it that.
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