Over the weekend, news broke that Brock Turner and his lawyers are asking for a retrial of his case. His lawyers submitted a 172-page brief explaining how his actions were not a crime, though they did happen, and included that it was not a fair trial because they had witnesses who could attest to his academic and athletic achievements, but they were not able to appear on the stand.

    As a little refresher, Brock Turner was found guilty in March of 2016 for three different felony counts: assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated/unconscious person, penetration of intoxicated person and penetration of unconscious person. He was sentenced 6 months in prison and was released after three months on good behavior.

     During this trial, Brock was 19. This event occurred in January of 2015. The victim of this assault wrote a strong letter to the judge, explaining what had happened to her, and it covered all of social media the day it was released.

     This man had caused an innocent woman an unimaginable amount of trauma that she has to live with for the rest of her life. And now, well over a year later since the trial, he wants to bring it back to court because it was “unfair” to him.
Sorry Brock, but you do not deserve a retrial.

     You got lucky with only being served a 6-month sentence in prison, and only actually doing 3 months. You are registered as a sex offender for life, but only in your home state of Ohio. And you still think you deserve your life back. You don’t.

     You violated a woman. Not only that, but a completely unconscious woman. There is no way for you to say she gave you consent when she couldn’t even move her body or open her eyes to realize what was happening to her.

     You chose to have your way with her, fully knowing that she was unconscious. You have ruined this woman’s life. She will be constantly looking over her shoulder, wondering if she’s ever even safe, keeping herself completely hidden from people because she doesn’t want to relive that night. And yet she does.

     You lost your scholarship? She lost her sense of self as a human being. You spent 3 months in jail? She will spend the rest of her life questioning the people around her and feeling like a victim.

     You took her humanity and you took her life. And this situation is still unfair to you? You must be so convoluted to even think that you have it worse than her. You don’t. She had to change the way of her everyday life, because you decided you needed to get laid.

     You do not deserve this retrial, Brock Turner. You deserve to remain in that prison and come to terms with what you have done. We all know who you are. We all know what you did. And just because you can pay your way through trying to become innocent, does not mean people’s minds will change about you.

       This just further proves that our voices need to be heard, now more than ever. Victims of sexual assault, rape or harassment, should not be blamed. No one asks for this and no one wants this. And people like Brock Turner need to understand that their wrongdoings should not go unpunished.

Sierra is a senior English major. She is the features editor for The Voice