Questions Raised About 6-Month Prison Sentence In Stanford Rape Case

05:46

June 09, 2016

In this Sept. 16, 2015 photo provided by Tessa Ormenyi, students hold up a sign about rape at White Plaza during New Student Orientation on the Stanford University campus in Stanford, California. (Tessa Ormenyi via AP)

There are now more than 800,000 signatures on an online petition calling for Judge Aaron Persky to be removed from the bench, after his controversial decision to sentence convicted Stanford rapist Brock Turner to six months in prison, compared to the maximum 14 years that Turner could have faced.

It's a sentence that has widely been seen as lenient, and Here & Now's Robin Young talks with Northwestern University Law Professor Deborah Tuerkheimer about how this compares to other sentences in the case of rape.

Note: The audio for this story contains graphic descriptions of the sexual assault in a rape case involving a Stanford University student.

Guest

Deborah Tuerkheimer, Northwestern University law professor and a former assistant district attorney in New York.

This segment aired on June 9, 2016.