The
cases are tragically similar: Student-athletes at two elite universities
accused of sex crimes against unconscious women. Yet one is given six
months in a county jail, while the other is facing at least 15 years in
prison.
Some
have questioned why 20-year-old former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner,
who is white, received a far less severe sentence for a January 2015
assault than the one faced by former Vanderbilt football player Cory
Batey, 22, who is black. The differences took on added significance this
week as a white former teammate of Batey's, Brandon Vandenburg, stood
trial again in Nashville for his role in the dorm room assault, which
took place in June 2013. Vandenburg was convicted of multiple counts of
aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery late Saturday.
But the comparison was never so simple.
The
difference in punishment reflects the number of alleged perpetrators in
one case, the acts committed, overwhelming evidence documenting one of
the crimes, and variations in how rape is defined in Tennessee and
California.
"It
does seem like an extreme disparity, but I would say this: With these
sex crimes, the facts are very important, the details are very
important, and the law punishes the conduct differently depending on
what conduct can be proven," said Dmitry Gorin, a Los Angeles criminal
defense lawyer and former prosecutor specializing in sex crimes. "In the
Stanford case, they did not prove rape."
The two
cases have moved to the forefront of a national debate about sexual
assaults on the nation's college campuses and the conduct of student
athletes. And some critics insist the circumstances are too similar to
justify the discrepancy.
Misee
Harris, a Los Angeles-based blogger who used to live in Tennessee and
writes extensively about race issues, has been among those criticizing
how the two cases were handled. She says neither punishment hit the
mark.
"One is just excessive and the other is just a little too lenient," Harris said.
The
Stanford swimmer was convicted of sexual assault, not rape, after two
students discovered him on top of an unconscious woman behind a
dumpster. The four former Vanderbilt students, three of whom are black,
were charged with aggravated rape. Vandenburg now faces the same
sentence as Batey: a minimum of 15 years in prison with no parole.
The
aggravated rape charges came into play under Tennessee law because the
victim was unconscious and there was more than one alleged perpetrator.
Two of the Vanderbilt players were charged with aggravated rape even
though they did not have sexual contact with the woman because
prosecutors considered them active participants.
In the
cases of both Batey and Turner, the suspects and victims say they were
drunk and remember little or nothing. Legal experts say that puts added
weight on physical evidence, which was far more substantial in the
Vanderbilt assault.
The
Vanderbilt case included graphic evidence, such as cellphone videos and
photos. No photo or video evidence surfaced in the case against Turner.
Another
key distinction involves how the two states view the crime. Juries for
both Turner and Batey found that digital penetration took place but did
not conclude that sexual intercourse had occurred. Tennessee law
considers digital penetration to be rape; California does not.
Turner, in fact, was not even charged with rape when he went to trial in March.
"They
chose not to prove rape because they did not have the evidence for it,
according to the records and the press reports," said Gorin, the Los
Angeles attorney. "In the Tennessee case, they proved aggravated rape,
and the law in the different states punishes the conduct differently."
California
has minimum 15-year sentences for certain types of aggravated rape,
Gorin said, but that's not what prosecutors proved in the Stanford case.
The lesser charges Turner was convicted of in March carried a maximum
of 14 years in prison, and prosecutors asked that he spend six years
behind bars.
However,
the judge did not have to adhere to a strict minimum and gave him six
months instead. Tennessee law does not grant the same discretion to
judges in aggravated rape cases, said Rob McKinney, a Nashville lawyer
and expert in Tennessee criminal law who is familiar with the case. That
means the judge in Batey's case must sentence him to at least 15 years
in prison when he is sentenced in July. The same is true for Vandenburg,
and the aggravated rape convictions for both carry a maximum of 25
years in prison.
"That
is the floor, not the ceiling," said McKinney, addressing Batey's
sentence. "He's not getting out of it. He's going to go to prison."
Associated Press Reportage.
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