Appeals court rejects convict Brock Turner’s ‘outercourse’ excuse, upholds assault conviction
Convict Brock Turner will remain on the sex offenders register after an appeals court rejected his attempt to have his sexual assault and attempted rape convictions overturned. His case received global attention after his victim’s impact statement was heard in court in 2016.
The felon, who was dubbed in the media as a Stanford swimmer, was sentenced to just six months in jail despite being found guilty of sexual penetration of an unconscious woman, sexual penetration of an intoxicated woman with a foreign object, and assault with intent to commit rape. He served three months of that sentence.
But despite the lenient sentencing, his legal camp still wanted to overturn his conviction. They filed an appeal in December for a new trial. Last month, attorney Eric Multhaup offered a new argument why Turner should have not been convicted. He claimed that Turner did not intend to have intercourse with the unnamed victim, but rather just “outercourse” because he was still wearing his clothes during the act.
It was apparent that the three-judge panel in a court in San Jose, California, did not buy the argument. The judges said it lacked merit, and therefore there was no need for a new trial.
This meant that Turner, 22, will remain on the sex offenders register permanently. He can still petition the California supreme court to consider his appeal, though. It’s unknown if he would consider it.
The judge in his case, Aaron Persky, was voted out in June. A petition for his recall was initiated by Stanford Law School professor Michele Dauber in 2016. As county judges in the state are elected, Persky was petitioned to be voted out of office for his lenient sentencing.
Dauber said Turner should forget about asking the supreme court for reconsideration, though. “The appellate court has now rejected that idea and I think everyone, including Brock Turner, would be better served by accepting the jury’s verdict and moving on,” she said.
