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Aaron Persky, the judge who leniently sentenced white Stanford University rapist Brock Turner, has now sentenced a Latino man to three years in prison for a very similar crime of assaulting his female roommate.
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News that Raul Ramirez, a 32-year-old from El Salvador, was sentenced to three years of state prison in March following a plea agreement, only became publicly known on Wednesday.
Persky sentenced Turner, a 20-year-old star Stanford swimmer a six-month jail sentence and three years of probation after Turner raped an unconscious woman. The sentence was widely condemned for being too lenient after Turner originally faced 14 years prison.
Ramirez and Turner’s cases are very similar—both had no previous criminal records and assaulted their victims in a similar manner.
Yet Ramirez was remorseful for his crime and admitted to the sexual assault, whereas Turner fled the scene after being found, and afterwards claimed to police that the encounter was consensual.
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Ramirez received a standard sentence for his crime, and Turner avoided the minimum two years of state prison.
“What’s happened with Mr Ramirez is standard … The anomaly is the Stanford case,” said Alexander Cross, the lawyer represented Ramirez and his poor family.
Turner’s parents sent letters to the court, pleading for a lighter sentence. Turner’s father claimed that his son should not be punished for “20 minutes of action.”
Ramirez's bail was set at US$200,000 whereas Turner’s was set at US$150,000.
“Turner got consideration not available to other defendants who aren’t as privileged," said Michele Landis Dauber, a Stanford professor campaigning to remove Persky.
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