Juror in Brock Turner Trial Has a Message for Judge: ‘Shame on You’

One of the jurors in the high-profile sexual assault case against former Stanford University student Brock Turner said “justice has not been served,” writing a critical letter to the judge who sentenced Turner to six months in county jail.

The juror—whose letter was delivered to Judge Aaron Persky on Saturday and published in the Palo Alto Weekly on Monday—is among many who have criticized Persky for what they think was a too-lenient sentence.

Persky sentenced Turner to six months in county jail after the jury found him guilty on three counts of sexual assault. The juror wrote that he was “absolutely shocked and appalled” by the comparatively lenient sentence.

“After the guilty verdict I expected that this case would serve as a very strong deterrent to on-campus assaults, but with the ridiculously lenient sentence that Brock Turner received, I am afraid that it makes a mockery of the whole trial and the ability of the justice system to protect victims of assault and rape,” the juror wrote in the letter. “Clearly there are few to no consequences for a rapist even if they are caught in the act of assaulting a defenseless, unconscious person.”

Read more: Read the Powerful Letter a Sexual Assault Victim Wrote to Her Attacker

The Palo Alto Weekly kept the juror’s name anonymous but met with him on Sunday to confirm his identity. The man is the only juror to speak out publicly about the case, but at least 10 prospective jurors in an unrelated case have refused to serve Persky since the sentencing.

Read the full letter in the Palo Alto Weekly.