STATEMENT: UltraViolet Responds to Reports Judge Aaron Persky Will No Longer Hear Criminal Cases
For Immediate Release: Friday, August 26, 2016
Contact: Brett Abrams | 516-841-1105 | brett@unbendablemedia.com
STATEMENT: UltraViolet Responds to Reports Judge Aaron Persky Will No Longer Hear Criminal Cases
CALIFORNIA — Yesterday, at his own request, California Judge Aaron Persky was reassigned and will no longer hear criminal cases. The decision came after months of constant public outcry to remove Judge Persky from the bench following his sentencing of a mere six months to Stanford athlete Brock Turner for raping an unconscious woman.
Effective September 6, Persky will hear cases in the civil division. The new assignment, however, will not be permanent, as judicial assignments rotate every year.
Nita Chaudhary, Co-founder of Ultraviolet, Issued the following statement:
“In case after case, Judge Persky has allowed his own personal bias to distort the criminal justice system to the benefit of privileged men—rapists, abusers and possessors of child porn—over the survivors of their crimes. These developments are an important first step, and show the power of what happens when millions of people stand up to rape culture. But there’s more work to do. As we have said from day one, Persky must go.”
On Wednesday, August 24th, activists from UltraViolet rallied outside of the California Commission on Judicial Performance and delivered giant pink slips reading, “Notice of Termination. Reason: Protecting Perpetrators, Not Survivors. #PerskyMustGo.”
Since news of Judge Persky’s verdict in the Brock Turner case broke, UltraViolet has:
- delivered the signatures of more than 1,000,000 UltraViolet members to the California Commission on Judicial Performance office in San Francisco on June 10th petitioning for the removal of Judge Aaron Persky.
- commissioned a plane to fly over Stanford University ahead of graduation and commencement ceremonies with a banner reading: “Protect Survivors. Not Rapists. #PerskyMustGo.”
- taken out a full-page ad in The Stanford Daily’s graduation issue inviting students and alumni to take a stand against rape culture.
- organized a letter of more than 1000 Stanford alumni calling on the Commission on Judicial Performance to remove Persky from the bench.
- commissioned a billboard to run on State Highway 92 urging Bay Area residents to call on the California Commission on Judicial Performance to remove Judge Persky.
- organized a survivor speak-out outside the June 29th meeting of the California Commission on Judicial Performance, where survivors of sexual assault shared their stories and called for Judge Persky’s removal from the bench.
- collaborated with Courage Campaign in getting more than 350 potential jurors in Santa Clara County to pledge to never serve in Judge Persky’s courtroom.
- organized more than 1000 survivors of sexual assault in a letter calling for the California Commission on Judicial Performance to take action against Judge Persky.
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UltraViolet is an online community of over 1,000,000 women and men who want to take collective action to expose and fight sexism in the public sector, private sector and the media. Find out more at WeAreUltraViolet.org.