Lawyer Argues “Sexual Outercourse” As A Form Of “Safe Sex” In Brock Turner’s Sexual Assault Appeal Case

—blogged by @lovelikejhoney

San Jose Attorney, Eric Malthaup, who represents former Stanford University swimmer, Brock Turner, argued this week that his client’s attempted rape conviction should be overturned because he was practicing “sexual outercourse,” which the lawyer described as a form of “safe sex.”⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

“Turner never intended to rape an unconscious woman,” he said. The lawyer cited witness accounts that Turner was “violently thrusting but fully clothed” when two Swedish graduate students found him on top of a half-naked, intoxicated woman in 2015.

But of a three-justice panel, one judge was not even a little convinced by attorney Malthaup’s argument.

“I absolutely don’t understand what you are talking about,” Justice Franklin D. Elia told the attorney in a California appeals court in San Jose.

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The judges on the panel have 90 days to issue a ruling, whether to appeal the case or not. If Turner wins his appeal, the Ohio resident may be able to erase his status as a lifetime Tier III sex offender in the state, the Dayton Daily News reported.

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Although Turner did not attend the appeals court session in California,his parents submitted separate objections to his sex offender status, according the the Daily News.

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“Brock will have to register at the highest tier, which means he is on the same level as a pedophile/child molester,” his mother, Carleen Turner, wrote.

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While his father, Dan Turner, added, “The fact that he now has to register as a sexual offender for the rest of his life forever alters where he can live, visit, work, and how he will be able to interact with people and organizations.”

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If this is the first you’re hearing of this case, Brock Turner was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman outside an on-campus fraternity house in 2015. After a trial in June 2016, a jury convicted Turner of sexual assault, however, of a maximum 14 year sentence, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Turner to a mere six months behind bars.

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The sentencing outraged victims’ rights advocates and was widely criticized as too lenient.

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After the victim’s 7,200-word letter to Turner that she read in the courtroom during sentencing received viral media attention, the case ignited a debate about campus rape and the criminal justice system.

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“I want to show people that one night of drinking can ruin two lives,” she wrote. “You and me. You are the cause, I am the effect.”

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The state legislature noticed, and a year  later Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that toughens penalties for attacks on unconscious victims. Additionally, last month, Persky became the first California jurist recalled from the bench in 86 years.

San Jose Attorney, Eric Malthaup, who represents former Stanford University swimmer, Brock Turner, argued this week that his client’s attempted rape conviction should be overturned because he was practicing “sexual outercourse,” which the lawyer described as a form of “safe sex.”

“Turner never intended to rape an unconscious woman,” he said. The lawyer cited witness accounts that Turner was “violently thrusting but fully clothed” when two Swedish graduate students found him on top of a half-naked, intoxicated woman in 2015.

But of a three-justice panel, one judge was not even a little convinced by attorney Malthaup’s argument.

“I absolutely don’t understand what you are talking about,” Justice Franklin D. Elia told the attorney in a California appeals court in San Jose.

The judges on the panel have 90 days to issue a ruling, whether to appeal the case or not. If Turner wins his appeal, the Ohio resident may be able to erase his status as a lifetime Tier III sex offender in the state, the Dayton Daily News reported.

Although Turner did not attend the appeals court session in California,his parents submitted separate objections to his sex offender status, according the the Daily News.

“Brock will have to register at the highest tier, which means he is on the same level as a pedophile/child molester,” his mother, Carleen Turner, wrote.

While his father, Dan Turner, added, “The fact that he now has to register as a sexual offender for the rest of his life forever alters where he can live, visit, work, and how he will be able to interact with people and organizations.”

If this is the first you’re hearing of this case, Brock Turner was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman outside an on-campus fraternity house in 2015. After a trial in June 2016, a jury convicted Turner of sexual assault, however, of a maximum 14 year sentence, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Turner to a mere six months behind bars.

The sentencing outraged victims’ rights advocates and was widely criticized as too lenient.

After the victim’s 7,200-word letter to Turner that she read in the courtroom during sentencing received viral media attention, the case ignited a debate about campus rape and the criminal justice system.

“I want to show people that one night of drinking can ruin two lives,” she wrote. “You and me. You are the cause, I am the effect.”

The state legislature noticed, and a year  later Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that toughens penalties for attacks on unconscious victims. Additionally, last month, Persky became the first California jurist recalled from the bench in 86 years.