# Would a black rapist have received such a lenient sentence? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 6, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668 "2016-06-06T19:33:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/141 "2016-06-07T21:26:51Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Many on the net are calling this kid a convicted rapist. He wasn’t convicted of rape but attempted rape. The prosecutor dropped the initial rape charge. I think this goes some way towards explaining the lighter sentence. Under the Model Penal Code and in many states, attempt crimes are sentenced the same as completed crimes. Even in states that do not follow the model code, attempt crimes are often only a step or two lower in punishment, but still in a similar range. California is unusual in punishing attempt crimes far less harshly. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/142 "2016-06-07T21:28:08Z")
> [@treis](#): > > That quote was from a “Santa Clara County Criminalist”, presumably the one that ran the BAC test. It doesn’t say how she got those numbers but it’s safe to assume it was a blood or brethalyzer test. > > [http://www.stanforddaily.com/2016/03/21/brock-turner-trial-continues-in-second-week-of-testimony/](http://www.stanforddaily.com/2016/03/21/brock-turner-trial-continues-in-second-week-of-testimony/) We have no evidence he was drunk at the time of the attempted rape. He was drunk enough for a police report the following morning, but he could have downed half a dozen shots between the time he left his victim and the time the police picked him up. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/143 "2016-06-07T21:32:49Z")
I thought that he was being held down by the Swedish cyclists until the police took custody. So when exactly could he have taken a drink after the rape? Also, the original police report quoted his friend as saying that they both drank at the party. ---
**Author:** ![AngelSoft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angelsoft/32/440_2.png) [@AngelSoft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelSoft)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/144 "2016-06-07T21:36:32Z")
…Why does it matter whether or not he was drunk? It doesn’t make a damn lick of different in DUIs or vehicular homicide during a DUI. Drunk or not, if he was every bit a stand up citizen as his family is making him out to be, he wouldn’t have raped her. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/145 "2016-06-07T21:38:15Z")
> [@AngelSoft](#): > > …Why does it matter whether or not he was drunk? It doesn’t make a damn lick of different in DUIs or vehicular homicide during a DUI. Drunk or not, if he was every bit a stand up citizen as his family is making him out to be, he wouldn’t have raped her. Agreed. People get drunk all the time and manage not to rape other people. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/146 "2016-06-07T21:46:17Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > At least he has to register as a sex offender. I’m still outraged, but it’s something. This is a good thing. We also need to understand what it means that poor misunderstood young Brock has raised the ire of the internet. What he really should do is 10 years of hard time with a lot of soapy shower PTSD, pay his dues, and return back to society broken but able to continue. But in actuality this thing is going to burn him forever. I’ll kick his balls if I ever see him. Eventually punishment has to end though, doesn’t it? I’m an outlier among my liberal friends about being concerned with internet mob justice, but we should all be scared about this. Right now it’s obvious red lines concerning an obvious rape, or Clarence the Last Lion, or Harambe an Apparently Significant Gorilla. In the future it could be a less-than-obvious rape, or you accidentally backing over your neighbor’s therapy dog. ---
**Author:** ![CCitizen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@CCitizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CCitizen)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/147 "2016-06-07T21:47:23Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > According to this [source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_regarding_rape), the average sentence for convicted rapists in the US is 11.8 years. The actual time served averages out to 5.4 years. > > No matter how you slice it, Turner got off very easy. Definitely, USA has the harshest legal system in the World for all crimes – especially for sexual assault. Many people are convicted on the accuser’s word alone. This sentence is extremely unusual – so it lead to the greatest national outrage since 9/11/01. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/148 "2016-06-07T21:48:42Z")
Okay, I freely admit I have not read this whole thread, but I did a quick search and it doesn’t look like anyone has answered the OP’s question by pointing to [Corey Batey](http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2016/04/09/jury-cory-batey-guilty-vanderbilt-rape-retrial/82769934/), a Vanderbilt student accused of raping a female student who was incapacitated due to alcohol consumption. The scenarios seem very, very similar, except for two minor details: Batey is black, and when convicted two months ago was sentenced to 15-20 YEARS in jail. [Brock Turner and Cory Batey, two college athletes who raped unconscious women, show how race and privilege affect sentences](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-brock-turner-cory-batey-show-race-affects-sentencing-article-1.2664945) ---
**Author:** ![CCitizen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@CCitizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CCitizen)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/149 "2016-06-07T21:49:58Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > What he really should do is 10 years of hard time with a lot of soapy shower PTSD, pay his dues, and return back to society broken but able to continue. But in actuality this thing is going to burn him forever. If someone suggested 20 years of **male guard therapy** for Clara Harris they would be considered a monster. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/150 "2016-06-07T21:51:50Z")
> [@Enola\_Gay](#): > > Agreed. People get drunk all the time and manage not to rape other people. Also, nobody poured the drinks down his throat but him. Even if drunkenness in any sense increased his propensity for rape, it’s still equally, entirely on him. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/151 "2016-06-07T21:55:13Z")
If he’d driven drunk and plowed his car into the same woman he raped, leaving her traumatized, it would be no different. He did the crime, he should do the time. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/152 "2016-06-07T21:56:11Z")
> [@AngelSoft](#): > > …Why does it matter whether or not he was drunk? It doesn’t make a damn lick of different in DUIs or vehicular homicide during a DUI. Drunk or not, if he was every bit a stand up citizen as his family is making him out to be, he wouldn’t have raped her. I think the difference is the scenario. Defense says it is a consensual encounter between two really drunk people gone wrong. Prosecution says that it’s a man finding a drunk woman passed out somewhere and trying to rape her. They’re both bad but I think the Prosecution’s version is a worse crime. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/153 "2016-06-07T21:58:01Z")
> [@russian\_heel](#): > > 6 months in prison, has to register for the rest of his life as a sex offender, lost his swimming and college career, and will have internet notoriety following him wherever he goes for the rest of his life. That only matters if the sex offender registry still exists in another five years. Secondly for a person of his station in life, his background won’t be checked when he goes into full time employment and the internet is going to forget about him in about a year, only to be rehashed when another frat boy gets into trouble. As for college and swimming, unless he was olympic track and concidering the conditions at Rio, perhaps letting him stay on the team would have been a better idea. No, the dude took a hit and now its damage control, but within five years its not going to matter. > [@russian\_heel](#): > > I think the prison sentence could have been longer too, but its not like Brock Turner got off completely scott-free. His life is all but ruined. The problem with his sentencing is that its not about him, its about justice being done and being seen to be done. All the rest of the world knows, is what they have always known, money matters. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/154 "2016-06-07T21:58:16Z")
It’s not a hypothetical question. Turner, a privileged, white athlete at an elite school, got 6 months for raping an unconscious woman. Batey, a black athlete on scholarship at another elite school, got up to 25 years for raping an unconscious woman. It was a heinous crime for both. The black man will be spending the prime years of his life in prison to pay for it. The white man will be spending the summer in county jail. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/155 "2016-06-07T22:04:39Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > It’s not a hypothetical question. Turner, a privileged, white athlete at an elite school, got 6 months for raping an unconscious woman. Batey, a black athlete on scholarship at another elite school, got up to 25 years for raping an unconscious woman. > > It was a heinous crime for both. The black man will be spending the prime years of his life in prison to pay for it. The white man will be spending the summer in county jail. Turner wasn’t convicted of rape. Batey was: > [@](#): > > Count 1: aggravated rape, penetration of vagina with fingers; guilty of aggravated sexual battery > > Count 2: aggravated rape, penetration of anus with fingers; guilty > > Count 3: aggravated rape, fellatio on mouth; guilty of attempted aggravated rape > > Count 4: aggravated rape, penetration of vagina with penis; guilty of attempted aggravated rape > > Count 5: criminal responsibility for Brandon E. Banks penetrating anus with object; guilty of facilitation > > of aggravated rape > > Count 6: aggravated sexual battery, criminal responsibility for Banks touching genital area; guilty > > Count 7: aggravated sexual battery, Batey placing his buttocks on face; guilty > **[Cory Batey found guilty of aggravated rape in retrial](https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2016/04/09/jury-cory-batey-guilty-vanderbilt-rape-retrial/82769934/)** > > A jury reached a verdict about 11 p.m. Friday in the retrial of Cory Batey in the Vanderbilt rape case. There’s a white player on trial for the same crimes so we will be able to test your theory. Although it looks like he didn’t physically participate in the rape but “directed” it. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/156 "2016-06-07T22:15:14Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > As for college and swimming, unless he was olympic track and concidering the conditions at Rio, perhaps letting him stay on the team would have been a better idea. No, the dude took a hit and now its damage control, but within five years its not going to matter. Actually, from what I’ve read, he _was_ going to try for the Olympic team. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/157 "2016-06-07T22:15:44Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > That only matters if the sex offender registry still exists in another five years. Secondly for a person of his station in life, his background won’t be checked when he goes into full time employment and the internet is going to forget about him in about a year, only to be rehashed when another frat boy gets into trouble. > > As for college and swimming, unless he was olympic track and concidering the conditions at Rio, perhaps letting him stay on the team would have been a better idea. No, the dude took a hit and now its damage control, but within five years its not going to matter. In five years it’s not going to matter that he is a convicted felon, registered sex offender, and spent ~3 months in jail? How do you figure? ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/158 "2016-06-07T22:18:09Z")
> [@treis](#): > > Turner wasn’t convicted of rape. Batey was: > > [Cory Batey found guilty of aggravated rape in retrial](http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2016/04/09/jury-cory-batey-guilty-vanderbilt-rape-retrial/82769934/) > > There’s a white player on trial for the same crimes so we will be able to test your theory. Although it looks like he didn’t physically participate in the rape but “directed” it. I was going by this quote from my other link: > [@](#): > > A jury agreed and Turner was found guilty of multiple felony rape charges. If that’s not true, blame the NY Daily News. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/159 "2016-06-08T00:15:03Z")
> [@treis](#): > > Turner wasn’t convicted of rape. Batey was: > > [Cory Batey found guilty of aggravated rape in retrial](http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2016/04/09/jury-cory-batey-guilty-vanderbilt-rape-retrial/82769934/) > > There’s a white player on trial for the same crimes so we will be able to test your theory. Although it looks like he didn’t physically participate in the rape but “directed” it. > [@Skammer](#): > > I was going by this quote from my other link: If that’s not true, blame the NY Daily News. NY Daily News is right. Brock Turner was convicted of the following: 1. Assault with intent to rape an intoxicated woman 2. Sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object 3. Sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object. Counts 2 & 3 fall under California penal code 261 (Rape). Therefore he is guilty of assault with attempt to rape, as well as 2 counts of rape. Turner Is Found Guilty, March 30, 2016 Turner was found guilty of raping the woman. His sentencing was scheduled for June 2, and he faced a maximum of 10 years behind bars. (Prosecutors were arguing for six years.) According to the Associated Press, Turner is appealing his decision. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668/160 "2016-06-08T00:48:06Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > I was going by this quote from my other link: If that’s not true, blame the NY Daily News. No, the blame is on you. You’re the one making the accusation so you’re responsible for getting the basic facts right. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-black-rapist-have-received-such-a-lenient-sentence/756668.md?page=9)