Reply to That Brock Allen Turner is a dirtbag

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm perfectly fine with the punishment given the facts. Both were extremely intoxicated acting extremely irresponsibly. There is evidence he was kissing, or trying to kiss the sister, and evidence that the victim left with him to hook up.  At some point she passed out and he should have immediately stopped.  He didn't.  Whether or not he was so hammered to not realize she was passed out does not lesson his guilt, but is a mitigating factor when determining his punishment.  As it is, his life is ruined.

And certainly am ok with his dad trying to save his kid.  duh.  Any of you guys parents???[/quote]

I am a parent, and a parent of a boy. I understand why the dad felt compelled to defend his son. That doesn't make the way he did it ok. It's understandable to ask for leniency on the basis that it's your son's first offense, or he's been a great kid up until now, or such an act was completely out of character. It's not okay to ask for leniency on the basis that sexual assault is just "20 minutes of action" and it wasn't really that bad.

It was that bad. It's true the boy's life is ruined, but he's the one that ruined it. There has to be some acknowledgement of responsibility, and neither the boy nor his father seem to understand that.[/quote]

The letter seemed like pure emotion, written soon afterseeing his son, without a lot of thought.  I wonder how many letters like that parents write, judges receive, that are never published.  He was defending his child, which is what parents do.  As for Brock, if he learns the lesson never to drink again, I'm happy with that.  Good enough.  [/quote]

Obviously I can't speak to this court or case, but I read a lot of these sorts of letters when I was clerking for a federal judge. Nearly always they focused on the defendant's personal qualities and standing in the community. Sometimes they were a plea for mercy because the defendant was a parent of young children, or supported a spouse or parent, etc etc. Much more rarely did one say "he was convicted but it wasn't that bad so you should go easy on him." And when those letters were there, they tended -- like this one -- to be from people who didn't believe that what the person did was very bad. Examples I remember are the friends of major tax evaders (and the evaders were tax lawyers!) and the friends of some guys convicted of running an illegal pharmaceutical drug ring. People died from mislabeled drugs, but the defendants were "good people." No acknowledgement that their actions killed people. Judge didn't put a lot of weight on that one.

So, sure, these letters are written and considered. It doesn't make them right. I like to think that if my child were ever convicted of raping or murdering someone -- G-d forbid! -- I would recognize that what he did was wrong. It wouldn't make him any less my child. But there needs to be acknowledgement that there was wrongdoing and there should be punishment.[/quote]

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