Following his controversial ruling against Brock Allen Turner in the Stanford Rape Case, a recall effort has been launched against Judge Aaron Persky on social media.The massive backlash and outrage is in response to the light sentence along with the reasoning that Judge Persky gave. Now there is a social media campaign seeking to remove him from the bench.
The recall effort
A social media campagin has been launched in an effort to recall Judge Persky starting with a Change.orgpetition that was started by Maya Stark. She encourages people to mail their complaint to the Commission on Judicial Performance in San Francisco while also providing links to story about past rape trials he has handled.A second petition has also been launched by Maria Ruiz, which also has gained significant traction.
As of June 6th, her petition has received 84,125 signatures while Starks' petition has received 22,672 signatures.
On Twitter, anything related to Judge Persky along with Turner and the Stanford Rape Case has been trending. Many have expressed their outrage with posts:
Judge #AaronPersky is a disgrace and #brockallenturner should be serving hard time
— bonita applebum (@mcDrizzly) June 4, 2016
Electing judges controversial for many reasons. No competition to hold bad judges accountable is one. Persky guaranteed to stay on bench
— Megan McCloskey (@MegMcCloskey) June 6, 2016
raped "promiscuous"? Judge Aaron Persky is a part of the rape culture that allows men to rape a woman and then blame her for being a whore.
— John Doe (@dailydecoder) June 3, 2016
This is Judge Aaron Persky of Palo Alto, gave six months to rapist to avoid "severe impact" on the criminal pic.twitter.com/PUul9cPIfy
— Victoria Aveyard (@VictoriaAveyard) June 3, 2016
Please help remove this judge:https://t.co/lDFPX6nGhj
— Michael De Luca (@MichaelDe_Luca) June 6, 2016
Judge Persky's decision has also been heavily criticized by the media, with the most notable being the Editorial Board of The Mercury News.
In an editorial, they described the light sentence as, "A setback for the movement to take campus rape seriously."
The Stanford Rape Case
Brock Allen Turner is a former student athlete at Leland Stanford Jr. University who was arrested for attempting to rape a fellow student behind a dumpster while she was passed out. He was convicted of three counts of sexual assault and was sentenced to six months in jail.
Judge Persky delivered the light sentence because he was concerned about the prison would have on his future.However many have criticized him for having a favorable bias towards the Turner for being a student athlete at Stanford.Persky is also a Stanford alumni and was the captain of the Lacrosse team.
This is also not the first time Judge Persky has come under fire for his handling of a rape case involving student athletes. He was also accused of suppressing evidence and violating rape shield laws during a 2007 civil trial in the alleged gang rape of a 17-year-old by a group of De Anza College athletes.
