Following national outrage over California Judge Aaron Persky’s decision to sentence 20-year-old Brock Turner to six months in jail for raping an unconscious women, two lawmakers have rallied to refine one powerful word in the state’s legal dictionary: Rape.
California State Assemblymembers Cristina Garcia and Susan Eggman want to update the state’s legal code to make it easier for victims like Turner’s to bring their cases to court.
California law currently defines “rape” as a man penetrating another person with his penis without consent. However, all other acts of unwanted sexual penetration fall under “sexual assault,” a crime that comes with a softer penalty. Since Turner allegedly used his hand to sexually assault his victim, he was charged with sexual assault for “penetrating a person with a foreign object,” instead of rape — even though federal law says otherwise.
The two crimes’ loose definitions leave a lot of gray area for suspects’ attorneys to dissect the details of the incident at the victim’s expense, in hopes of getting their client off with a lighter sentence.
“This is archaic definition reflects a culture that blames women for the crimes that are committed against them, and finds any excuse to be lenient with rapists,” said Eggman in a press release. “Forcing someone into sexual activity is rape, and the law should say that.”
It’s a slap in the face for a rape victim to have her rape be questioned and argued in trial.
A poignant letter from Turner’s victim — which spread like wildfire across the internet — illustrates the consequences of the current legal language surrounding these crimes. In it, the woman recounts the manipulative, blame-placing questions Turner’s attorneys confronted her with in trial: “This was a game of strategy, as if I could be tricked out of my own worth,” she wrote.
This string of questioning, where a victim is asked about every detail leading up to their attack — as if they are responsible for their attacker’s motives — is unique to a rape cases. In a robbery, for example, an attorney wouldn’t focus on what the victim did to make themselves more open to being robbed — it’s either they were robbed or they weren’t. But in California, where the legal lines between “rape” and “sexual assault” are blurred, it’s not as easy for a victim to defend themselves.
“It’s a slap in the face for a rape victim to have her rape be questioned and argued in trial,” said Garcia. “It’s additional trauma to go through.”
That’s why Garcia and Eggman introduced a bill in the state Senate to change the state penal code’s definition of rape to match the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ more comprehensive definition: “penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”
California is one in just a handful of states that criminalize ‘object penetration’ to a lesser degree than penile penetration. It’s also one of the few states where only men can be guilty of rape. Women are only charged if they assist a man in committing a rape.
The Judge Who Sentenced The Stanford Rapist To 6 Months In Jail Can Be Recalled. Here’s How.Justice by CREDIT: Newsy, The Recorder Today, Judge Aaron Persky – the judge responsible for convicted rapist Brock…thinkprogress.orgThe two assemblymembers will know if the Senate will act on their legislation by September 30. Garcia said that if the legislation passes, California courts would see three changes.
“First, we wouldn’t be getting so into the nuances and details of traumatic rape cases in court,” she said. Second, she added, society would take all rape cases more seriously. “Many people hear ‘sexual assault’ and think of something a lot less serious than ‘rape.’”
And lastly, Garcia said, state judges would treat all rape cases equally, not letting the details change the maximum sentencing time.
However, this isn’t everything the two lawmakers are doing in response to Turner’s trial. They’ve also joined other lawmakers and legal experts in asking Judge Persky to resign, or re-asses the case. Garcia knows a widely-covered rape trial like Turner’s is infrequent, and that the chatter around the case will eventually die out. So she’s using every tool she can to make a change.
“We’re taking advantage of the moment,” she said. “We’re exhausting every avenue we can to create a more just system.”