Remember Brock Turner? If his trial seems like it was just yesterday, then you're almost right. Just three months after his light sentencing, Brock Turner has already left prison. Since his release, he's been spotted in the backyard of his parent's Ohio home. There have been several reports of armed protesters outside the Turner house- neighborhood residents who are angry about having to live near a convicted rapist. So what's next for the "former Stanford swimmer?" What is California doing to improve their laws governing rape cases?
Brock Turner's Future
Brock Turner has been released from jail, but that doesn't mean that he's totally free yet. He has returned to his parent's home in Dayton, Ohio, where he will be given five days to register as a sex offender. He must re-register as a sex offender every 90 days. Turner's conviction, photo, and residential address will be publicly available on Ohio's sex offender registry. For the rest of his life, he must notify law enforcement agencies whenever he changes his address, employment, vehicle, telephone number, education schedule, or Internet usernames and passwords.
He will no longer be allowed to live within 1,000 feet of a school or playground, and anyone living within 1,250 feet of him for the rest of his life will be notified of his status with a postcard. Turner will be on probation for the next three years and must enter a sex offender management program for one to three years. In this program, he will attend counseling sessions held by psychologists and will submit to polygraph tests.
New Rules Being Put In Place
Though this case has been a dark cloud over our society for some months now, there is a silver lining- a new law is in the process of being passed in California that would impose stricter punishments on perpetrators of sexual assault. Before this bill, only rapists who used physical force would serve prison time. The former law basically left loopholes for rapists whose victim was unconscious, incapacitated, or somehow unable to give consent.
Essentially, once this bill is passed, you will not be able to avoid jail time if you sexually assault someone who has passed out. The bill passed unanimously in the state assembly. If this law had been around for Brock Turner's case, he would have had to serve a mandatory three years in prison for his three felony counts of sexual assault.
Read the full bill, Assembly Bill 2888, here.