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1 Million People Sign Petition to Remove Stanford Rape Case Judge

HeadlineAug 02, 2016

Activists have collected more than a million signatures on a petition calling for the impeachment of the judge in the Stanford rape case. In June, California Judge Aaron Persky gave Stanford swimmer Brock Allen Turner a six-month jail sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster. Judge Persky said he was concerned a longer prison sentence would have a “severe impact” on Turner. Turner is white, and Judge Persky has since given a harsher sentence to a Latino man who committed a similar crime. This is one of the demonstrators who delivered the petition to Persky’s courthouse on Monday.

Demonstrator: “Basically what we’re focusing on is his bias. He has given lenient sentences to specific classes of people, and then, when faced with other classes of people, he’s given much harsher sentences.”

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