I found it notable that Hon. LaDoris Cordell, a Black woman judge, was a supporter of Judge Persky. What the People v. Brock Turner highlighted was the issue of judicial discretion in sentencing based on the accused’s past history. Any lawyer who has done some criminal defense work will have a story about a young man accused of sexual battery sentenced to 10 years or more because (a) he was a different race than the victim; (b) he was poor; (c )he did not have a good attorney; (d) he did not have an attorney; (e) the judge got up on the wrong side of the bed that morning.

Turner made the grave mistake of sexually assaulting a woman in a community where the rights of sexual assault victims are highlighted (although not necessarily respected). I doubt that if the victim had not been a Stanford student and if Mr. Turner had been Billy Turner, a part-time community college student, his sentence would have been ordinary and acceptable. At The Farm, not so much.