People v. Turner
| People v. Turner | |
|---|---|
| Court | Superior Court of the State of California for and in the County of Santa Clara |
| Full case name | The People of the State of California v. Brock Allen Turner |
| Indictment | January 28, 2015, on counts:
|
| Started | March 14, 2016 |
| Decided | March 30, 2016 |
| Verdict |
|
| Defendant | Brock Allen Turner |
| Outcome | |
| Turner was sentenced on June 2, 2016, to six months' incarceration in the Santa Clara County jail to be followed by three years of probation. He was released three months early. Additionally, Turner must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and participate in a sex offender rehabilitation program. | |
| Court membership | |
| Judge sitting | Aaron Persky |
| Keywords | |
People v. Turner, formally The People of the State of California v. Brock Allen Turner (2015), was a criminal case in which Brock Allen Turner was convicted by jury trial of three counts of felony sexual assault.
On January 18, 2015, on the Stanford University campus, Turner, then a 19-year-old student athlete at Stanford, sexually assaulted 22-year-old Chanel Miller (referred to in court documents as "Emily Doe") while she was unconscious. Two graduate students intervened and held Turner in place until police arrived. Turner was arrested and released the same day after posting $150,000 bail.
Turner was initially indicted on five charges: two for rape, two for felony sexual assault, and one for attempted rape, although the two rape charges were later withdrawn. On February 2, 2015, Turner pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. The trial concluded on March 30, 2016, with Turner convicted of three charges of felony sexual assault. On June 2, 2016, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Turner to six months in jail followed by three years of probation. Additionally, Turner was obliged to register as a sex offender for life and to complete a rehabilitation program for sex offenders.
On September 2, 2016, Turner was released after serving three months, which was half of his sentence, for good behavior. Turner filed an appeal of his conviction and sentence in 2017, but it was denied.
Chanel Miller's victim impact statement to the court, on June 2, 2016, was widely disseminated by international media outlets. There was also widespread criticism of what was seen as a light sentence given by Judge Persky, and he was recalled by county voters in June 2018. The case influenced the California legislature to require prison terms for rapists whose victims were unconscious, and to include digital penetration in the definition of rape. In September 2019, Miller relinquished her anonymity and released an autobiography entitled Know My Name: A Memoir in which she discusses the assault, trial, and aftermath.