People were appalled when the Stanford rapist, Brock Turner, was let off with an extremely light sentence of six months in jail. California lawmakers shared in the outrage, and immediately took action to stop this sort of horrific event from ever happening again. They decided to push a bill that would require all rapists—including those who rape unconscious victim—to serve prison time.
Well that bill, AB 2888, was just passed.
According to BuzzFeed News, this law received unanimous support from the California State Assembly. Now, it must be signed by Governor Jerry Brown to become law.
The bill would officially close the loophole that has let so many rapists of unconscious individuals slip through with little to no punishment.
Prior to this bill, California law mandated that the rape of a conscious victim result in a three to eight year prison sentence; however, the rape of an unconscious victim could have resulted in as little as probation time for the rapist because there was a lack of force used on the victim.
According to CNN Politics, the bill would amend the law to require the same punishment for those convicted of rape, sodomy, penetration with a foreign object and oral sex if the victim was unconscious or intoxicated.
Assemblyman Bill Dodd, one of the sponsors of the bill, told BuzzFeed News, “Sexually assaulting an unconscious or intoxicated victim is a terrible crime and our laws need to reflect that. Letting felons convicted of such crimes get off with probation discourages other survivors from coming forward and sends the message that raping incapacitated victims is no big deal.”
Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen, who helped proposed this legislation, thanked lawmakers for working to make this a reality. More importantly, he also thanked Emily Doe, the victim from the Stanford rape case.
“Mostly, we thank Emily Doe for her courageous letter. It gave all of us the inspiration to make sure the next Brock Turner either leaves the next Emily Doe alone, or the next Brock Turner goes to prison,” Rosen said.
Hopefully this law will make California safer for women, especially for collegiettes across the state.