Statements mark first time Aaron Persky has addressed effort to unseat him over his light sentencing of Brock Turner, who was convicted of sexual assault
The judge in the Stanford sexual assault case has launched a campaign to fight the high-profile effort to unseat him, declaring that he has a reputation for being fair to both sides in his first public comments on the controversy.
Judge Aaron Persky, who received widespread backlash for his sentencing of former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner, is campaigning to stay in office and has launched the website RetainJudgePersky.com where he states that he is a strong advocate for judicial independence.
I took an oath to uphold the Constitution, not to appease politicians or ideologues. When your own rights and property are at stake, you want the judge to make a fair and lawful decision, free from political influence, he wrote on the site.
The northern California judges statements mark the first time he has directly addressed the well-funded initiative to recall him from office over his light sentencing of Turner, who was convicted of multiple felony counts of sexual assault. Persky is also soliciting donations on the site.
Persky sentenced the 20-year-old athlete to six months in county jail, which is lighter than the minimum of two years in state prison prescribed by law. Turner was caught sexually assaulting an unconscious woman by a dumpster outside an on-campus fraternity party, but throughout the trial, he argued that the encounter was consensual.
Turner, who went to jail in June, is scheduled to be released on Friday after serving only half of his sentence. In California, inmates with good behavior are often released early.
The case made headlines across the globe after the victim released a powerful impact statement detailing the trauma of the trial.
Michele Landis Dauber, a Stanford law professor and family friend of the victim, subsequently organized a formal initiative to remove Persky from office, arguing that the Santa Clara County judge failed to treat assault as a serious crime.
Prosecutors later removed Persky from a new sexual assault case, saying they lacked confidence in him. Last week, the judge took the unusual step of removing himself from all criminal cases and transferring to civil court, but Dauber said the recall campaign would continue.
The judges opponents have argued that he has repeatedly been too lenient towards men convicted of sex crimes and violence against women, including when he presided over a sexual assault case in civil court.