With Liberty and Unequal Justice for Non-White, Non-Rich and Privileged Rapists

As long as this sort of disparity in meting out justice exists, how can we recite the end of the Pledge of Allegiance with a straight face?

Brock Turner and Cory Batey, two college athletes who raped unconscious women, show how race and privilege affect sentencing in felony crimes.

Cory Batey

"When Cory Batey was a 19-year-old standout football player at Vanderbilt, he raped an unconscious woman. The ample evidence, including security cameras showing the unconscious woman being carried into a dorm room and cellphone photos and videos of the sexual assault, was clear — Cory Batey sexually assaulted the woman. In April, a jury found Batey guilty of three felony counts including aggravated rape and two counts of aggravated sexual battery. He was immediately remanded into custody and must serve a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 to 25 years in prison. 

What Batey did was reprehensible. The judge and jury treated his crime as such.

Turner was given a six-month jail sentence and told he could be released on good behavior in as little as three months.

Former Vanderbilt football player Cory Batey must serve a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 to 25 years in prison for raping an unconscious woman." 

Brock Turner

"Brock Turner will serve six months in jail for the same crime. 

That's what makes the case of Brock Turner, a 19-year-old standout swimmer at Stanford who raped an unconscious woman, all the more infuriating. As was the case with Batey, ample evidence existed that Turner was guilty. Eyewitnesses actually caught him in the act as he sexually assaulted an unconscious woman behind a dumpster. 

A jury agreed and Turner was found guilty of multiple felony rape charges. Turner, though, was given a six-month jail sentence and told he could be released on good behavior in as little as three months. 

He won't even go to an actual prison, but will remain in the local jail during that time. 

 One man will spend the entire prime of his life in prison for his crime — the other will be out of jail before the summer heat disappears." 





To make this rotten disparity of justice even more outrageous is Turner's father's whining about the consequences his privileged son faces. In addition to referring to his son's rape as "20 minutes of action," Brock's father complained that his son is depressed, has no joy in his life, and can't even enjoy eating a nice juicy steak anymore.

Yes. Brock's father said that, without a mention of how his son's felony rape has affected his victim.

Lots of young college students get drunk; they don't all rape unconscious women.   


Here's the rape victim's powerful letter to her rapist.