Tuesday, June 14, 2016

About that lenient sentence

I'm not ready to comment much yet on the atrocity in Orlando, but this story from Stanford got me thinking a bit.  More or less, a student-athlete at Stanford received only a six month sentence for sexual assault. 

Now I am no great expert on sexual assault, except to note that Biblically, it's a capital crime.   However, it strikes me that while the official sentence is lenient, Brock Turner has an unofficial sentence that makes the official sentence pale in comparison. 

Specifically, he's a guy who had the treasure of Division 1 athletics (or possibly even the Olympics)  before him, and now I'd be surprised if any coach is willing to touch him.   He's also a young man who had the intellect to go to Stanford, but now is going to have trouble getting a college degree at all, and his conviction is going to dog him for the rest of his life.  Corner office or Tahoe mansion to Wal-Mart greeter in minutes, more or less.

And the trial?  Let's concede the obvious here; getting drunk or stoned can be the difference between a sinful thought and a lifetime of consequences, the difference between walking home safely and passing out on the sidewalk, and between being an excellent witness and not remembering the crime committed against you.

Those who deny these facts on campus--I am told there are many--hate the young people that come there.

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