Monday, 4 December 2017

Stanford rapist Brock Turner appeals sentence

Though already released from the very light sentence imposed on him by a sympathetic judge, Stanford rapist Brock Turner wants to have his verdict overturned all the same.

Turner's lawyers argued in their appeal filed Friday that the initial trial was "a detailed and lengthy set of lies."

They are also hoping to overturn the lifetime requirement that Turner register as a sex offender.

Turner's case became a flashpoint in the debate on campus sexual assault after an impassioned victim impact statement from the accuser went viral.

He served only three months of his six-month sentence. One of the high notes in the appeal is its objection to his being described in court as assaulting his victim behind a "trash bin," when it was in fact a "garbage receptacle."

In either case, Turner was gotten off his victim by passers-by who then chased him down.

Just before 1 a.m. on Jan. 18, 2015, Jonsson and Arndt were riding their bikes along a path near the Kappa Alpha fraternity. Jonsson told the cops that movement by a dumpster caught his eye, and he saw a guy on top of a female who was lying on her back, according to a police report.

At first, Jonsson and Arndt assumed the interaction was consensual. But Jonsson said he noticed that the female wasn’t moving as he peddled by. “Something seemed weird,” he told police, because the woman appeared to be unconscious.

Jonsson and Arndt approached the dumpster and yelled “Hey” to the guy who was later revealed to be Turner. He took off running, according to the police report. Jonsson realized the woman was passed out and chased after Turner, eventually catching and tripping him, the police report said.