Brock Turner sentence: Legal analyst weighs in on Stanford sexual assault
LOS ANGELES -- Efforts are growing to remove a California judge from the bench after he sentenced a former Stanford University swimmer to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.
Women's rights advocates delivered a strong message Friday along with three boxes representing nearly a million signatures to the state Commission on Judicial Performance.
They're demanding the removal of Judge Aaron Persky, saying he was far too easy on former-swim-champion-turned-sex-offender Brock Turner. Stanford law professor Michele Dauber is leading the charge.
"It shows how angry people are, that one million people nationwide have signed a petition saying, you know, do something," Dauber said.
Turner sexually assaulted the woman on campus last year. His three felony convictions could have put him in prison for 14 years.
Prosecutors argued for six years, but Persky only gave him six months.
"It just seems way too low for what we know now about what happened in this crime," legal analyst Laurie Levenson told CBS News.
However, the Loyola Law School professor believes "it was definitely a lawful sentence."
Even prosecutor Alaleh Kianerci says the judge followed the law and did not believe Turner's race or athletic standing played a role.
"He was absolutely neutral during the trial," Kianerci said. "We just don't agree with his sentence."
Persky's sentence was partly based on a probation department recommendation that cited Turner's "lack of criminal history and youthful age."
But in a letter directed toward her assailant, the victim called it "a mockery of the seriousness of his assaults."
The signatures gathered so far may be largely symbolic because only Santa Clara County registered voters can authorize a recall. The other option, impeachment, hasn't happened in California since 1929.
Protests are expected to continue Sunday at Stanford's commencement ceremony.
