{"id":54114,"date":"2016-08-09T14:46:51","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T19:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=54114"},"modified":"2016-08-09T15:10:41","modified_gmt":"2016-08-09T20:10:41","slug":"brock-turner-no-responsibility-no-redemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/brock-turner-no-responsibility-no-redemption\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock Turner: No Responsibility, No Redemption"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember Brock Turner, the Stanford University swimmer-cum- rapist? There was outrage a\u00a0few months ago when he was sentenced to a mere six months for raping an unconscious woman.\u00a0He was eligible to be sentenced to 14 years; prosecutors requested six years. (We previously\u00a0discussed some terrible comments<\/a> made by Turner\u2019s father in a misguided appeal for\u00a0clemency.)\u00a0It has recently come to my attention that Turner was back in the news, albeit\u00a0under most people\u2019s radar. It came out that his already-lenient sentence was being reduced to\u00a0three months due to \u201cgood behavior.\u201d It should be noted that the original sentence angered the\u00a0population to the point that over a million people signed a petition calling for Santa Clara County\u00a0Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky to be ousted from his position. Cutting it in half doesn\u2019t\u00a0make it better.<\/p>\n

One can quibble about the intended purpose of incarceration. Is it punitive? Rehabilitative? To\u00a0protect the public? Whatever the case, it is hoped that recidivism is to be avoided. To that end, it\u00a0is imperative that offenders accept responsibility for their actions. This is something that Turner\u00a0never did.<\/p>\n

Rather than accepting responsibility, Turner took the \u201csociety is to blame\u201d route, stating, \u201cBefore\u00a0this happened, I never had any trouble with law enforcement\u2026 I’ve been shattered by the party\u00a0culture and risk taking behavior that I briefly experienced in my four months at school.\u201d (For the\u00a0record, Turner had a history of drug use dating back to high school and was arrested in 2014 for\u00a0underage possession of alcohol but whatever.)<\/p>\n

Turner also focused on how his actions affected himself, rather than his victim, lamenting \u201cI\u2019ve\u00a0lost my ability to obtain a Stanford degree. I\u2019ve lost employment opportunity, my reputation and\u00a0most of all, my life. These things force me to never want to put myself in a position where I have\u00a0to sacrifice everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his statement to the court, Turner does acknowledge that he inflicted \u201cemotional and physical\u00a0stress\u201d on his victim (\u201cstress\u201d being somewhat of an understatement; how about \u201ctrauma?\u201d) but\u00a0he never actually apologizes for his actions. The extent of his remorse is, \u201cI never want to have a\u00a0drop of alcohol again. I never want to attend a social gathering that involves alcohol or any\u00a0situation where people make decisions based on the substances they have consumed. I never\u00a0want to experience being in a position where it will have a negative impact on my life or\u00a0someone else\u2019s ever again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, the extent of Turner\u2019s rehabilitation (as he sees it) is, \u201cI want to show that people\u2019s\u00a0lives can be destroyed by drinking and making poor decisions while doing so. One needs to\u00a0recognize the influence that peer pressure and the attitude of having to fit in can have on\u00a0someone. One decision has the potential to change your entire life. I know I can impact and\u00a0change people\u2019s attitudes towards the culture surrounded by binge drinking and sexual\u00a0promiscuity that protrudes through what people think is at the core of being a college student. I\u00a0want to demolish the assumption that drinking and partying are what make up a college\u00a0lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Me, me, me. Turner sees himself as a victim and mourns how college\u2019s wicked, wicked culture\u00a0has ruined him. His victim is mere collateral damage.<\/p>\n

Despite this attitude, Judge Persky sentenced Turner to a jail term that many considered even less\u00a0than a slap on the wrist. Here\u2019s how the judge interpreted Turner\u2019s remorse:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so you have Mr. Turner expressing remorse, which I think, subjectively, is genuine, and\u00a0[the victim] not seeing that as a genuine expression of remorse because he never says, \u2018I did this.\u00a0I knew how drunk you were. I knew how out of it you were, and I did it anyway.\u2019 And that – I\u00a0don’t think that bridge will, probably, ever be crossed.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so, Judge Persky decided that six months was punishment enough, as any more would have\u00a0a \u201csevere impact\u201d on Turner. The victim, however, called the sentence \u201ca soft timeout, a\u00a0mockery of the seriousness of his assaults, an insult to me and all women.\u201d<\/p>\n

I would like to contrast this with a case well-known in the Jewish community. In 2011, Wendy\u00a0Runge was sentenced to ten years for allegedly attempting to defraud the state of Iowa. During\u00a0the course of the trial, she maintained a blog where she asserted her innocence. At sentencing,\u00a0Judge Douglas Staskal held the blog against her, saying \u201cyou have not taken responsibility for\u00a0what you did.\u201d Of course she didn\u2019t \u2013 she says she didn\u2019t do it! Nevertheless, he sentenced a non-violent first offender to ten years for being \u201carrogant and defiant.\u201d His justification for doing\u00a0so was \u201cto send a message to you and others who would engage in this kind of behavior that it\u2019s\u00a0not accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n

If failure to accept responsibility justifies such a harsh sentence in the case of a nonviolent first-\u00a0offender who maintains her innocence, what justifies overlooking it when someone admits he\u00a0committed a violent crime but blames it on \u201cparty culture?\u201d<\/p>\n

Accepting responsibility counts for a lot. It can mean the difference between keeping and losing\u00a0a kingdom. In I Samuel chapter 13<\/a>, King Saul was ordered to wait for the prophet Samuel to\u00a0offer a sacrifice. Saul\u2019s troops were getting antsy so he jumped the gun and took action before\u00a0Samuel\u2019s arrival. When questioned, he justified his actions rather than admitting that he had\u00a0erred. This cost him the possibility of a dynasty.<\/p>\n

In chapter 15<\/a>, when commanded to eradicate the nation of Amalek down to the flocks, Saul kept\u00a0the choicest animals (and the Amalekite king, Agag) alive. Again, when confronted with his\u00a0misdeed, Saul justified instead of accepting responsibility. This cost him the throne personally.<\/p>\n

Contrast this with the case of King David, who was intimate with a married woman and, unable\u00a0to cover up his actions, had her soldier husband sent to the front lines, where he was killed in\u00a0battle. When called out by the prophet Nathan, David\u2019s immediate reaction was to declare, \u201cI\u00a0have sinned against God!\u201d The prophet informed David that, because he took responsibility for\u00a0his actions, his life would be spared. (See II Samuel chapter 12<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

This is not to say that accepting responsibility removes all consequences. While David\u2019s life was\u00a0spared, the baby produced by the union with Batsheva died (a theological implication beyond the\u00a0scope of this piece). Even Achan, the looter in the Book of Joshua, benefitted from accepting\u00a0responsibility. Yes, he was executed but our Sages explain that taking ownership of his actions\u00a0enabled Achan to secure a place in the Next World. (Read more about Achan and taking\u00a0responsibility\u00a0here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

We believe redemption is possible, even for violent criminals like rapists and murderers. Brock\u00a0Turner is probably not a monster. He\u2019s probably just a kid who got so wrapped up in his own\u00a0entitlement that he did a horrible thing to another person with no regard for her safety or consent.\u00a0The proper response in such a case is to accept responsibility, to apologize, and to do one\u2019s best\u00a0to make amends. The damage to the victim can never be fully undone, and there will still be\u00a0consequences to pay, but accepting responsibility is the first step on the road to redemption.<\/p>\n

A ridiculously light sentence with no apology and without accepting responsibility is more than\u00a0an insult to the victim; it reinforces Turner\u2019s worldview with himself as victim. He may serve his\u00a0time (such as it is) and he may live with the consequences of his actions (loss of scholarship,\u00a0placement on the sex-offender registry, etc.). It\u2019s also possible that he may go on to live a\u00a0squeaky-clean life and never re-offend \u2013 and that would be great. But unless he takes\u00a0responsibility for what he did, how can he ever be redeemed for it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remember Brock Turner, the Stanford University swimmer-cum- rapist? There was outrage a\u00a0few months ago when he was sentenced to a mere six months for raping an unconscious woman.\u00a0He was eligible to be sentenced to 14 years; prosecutors requested six years. (We previously\u00a0discussed some terrible comments made by Turner\u2019s father in a misguided appeal for\u00a0clemency.)\u00a0It has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-torah"],"yoast_head":"\nBrock Turner: No Responsibility, No Redemption - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/brock-turner-no-responsibility-no-redemption\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brock Turner: No Responsibility, No Redemption - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Remember Brock Turner, the Stanford University swimmer-cum- rapist? 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