US VICE PRESIDENT Joe Biden has penned an open letter to the woman whose rape case made international headlines this week.
The woman was assaulted by Stanford student athlete Brock Turner at a party last year. However, despite being found guilty on three counts, Turner received a sentence of just six months in a county jail.
The victim’s powerful impact statement brought the case to worldwide attention, now Biden has responded.
In a letter sent to Buzzfeed News, Biden says her words are “forever seared in his soul”.
Biden wrote one of America’s laws on violence against women and is a leading part of a White House campaign to end campus sexual assaults.
“I am in awe of your courage for speaking out — for so clearly naming the wrongs that were done to you and so passionately asserting your equal claim to human dignity.
And I am filled with furious anger — both that this happened to you and that our culture is still so broken that you were ever put in the position of defending your own worth.
“It must have been wrenching — to relive what he did to you all over again. But you did it anyway, in the hope that your strength might prevent this crime from happening to someone else. Your bravery is breathtaking.
You are a warrior — with a solid steel spine.
Apologies
The case against the one-time Olympic hopeful has gripped the US, with letters to a judge from Turner’s family and friends drawing outrage from critics who say they are shifting blame from a 20-year-old man who won’t take responsibility for his actions.
Taking into account more than three dozen letters from character witnesses and a recommendation from the county probation department, Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Turner to six months in jail and three years’ probation for attacking the 23-year-old woman behind a campus dumpster in January 2015.
He tried to flee, but students tackled and pinned him down until police arrived.
Two people who wrote letters defending Turner have apologised.
One of them came from Kelly Owens, a guidance counselor at Oakwood High School in Dayton, Ohio, where Turner attended.
She had told the court that her former student was “absolutely undeserving of the outcome” of a jury trial that resulted in his conviction of three felony counts of sexual assault.
She regrets writing a letter to the judge and acknowledged it was a mistake, her school district said in a prepared statement Wednesday.
“Of course he should be held accountable,” Oakwood City School District Superintendent Kyle Ramey quotes Owens as saying. “I am truly sorry for the additional pain my letter has caused.”
Leslie Rasmussen, a childhood friend of Turner’s, faced blowback for writing a supportive letter. She had blamed campus drinking culture and political correctness for his drunken life choices.
“I was not there that night. I had no right to make any assumptions about the situation,” according to a posting Wednesday on a Facebook page that appears to be Rasmussen’s.
Most importantly, I did not acknowledge strongly enough the severity of Brock’s crime and the suffering and pain that his victim endured, and for that lack of acknowledgement, I am deeply sorry.
Limitless potential
Biden’s letter goes on to say that sexual assault on women is never their fault.
“I do not know your name — but I see your unconquerable spirit.
“I see the limitless potential of an incredibly talented young woman — full of possibility. I see the shoulders on which our dreams for the future rest.
“I see you.
You will never be defined by what the defendant’s father callously termed “20 minutes of action.
“His son will be. I join your global chorus of supporters, because we can never say enough to survivors: I believe you. It is not your fault.
What you endured is never, never, never, NEVER a woman’s fault. And while the justice system has spoken in your particular case, the nation is not satisfied.
“And that is why we will continue to speak out.”
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