Earlier this week it was revealed that Brock Turner’s father wrote an impassioned plea to the judge of his son’s court case stating that “20 minutes of action” shouldn’t damn his son to years in prison. Now, his mother’s mercy-seeking letter to the court has been made public. This comes on the heels of the news that Brock Turner may have taken photos of the woman he raped, and the news that he will likely serve three months of his six-month jail sentence.
Before her son’s sentencing, Carleen Turner wrote Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky begging for leniency and attempted to put her family and world into perspective. The letter, which was made public today, is quite different than her husband’s letter in subject matter.
“I beg of you, please don’t send him to jail/prison. Look at him. He won’t survive it. He will be damaged forever and I fear he would be a major target. Stanford boy, college kid, college athlete — all the publicity. This would be a death sentence for him.”
“He has never been in trouble, never even had a demerit in high school, he studied, swam worked hard. His dreams have been shattered by this. No NCAA Championships. No Stanford degree, no swimming in the Olympics (and I honestly know he would have made a future team), no medical school, no becoming an Orthopedic surgeon.”
Turner’s mother also insists that, contrary to perception, the family is not wealthy, and Brock is not “privileged.” This extra information has nothing to do with her son’s actions, but her pleas may have resonated with the judge. After all, Aaron Persky has come under fire for showing leniency on another rape case previous to this ruling, and a petition has garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures to remove him from his seat.
Did these letters have something to do with his ruling?
(via ABC News)