Sex crimes bill linked to local grad signed in Calif.
California’s governor on Friday signed a sex crimes bill authored in the aftermath of Brock Turner’s assault case.
The law’s passage is the latest development in the fallout surrounding the Oakwood High School graduate’s 2015 sexual assault of a woman at Stanford University and his subsequent sentencing, which many decried as lenient.
Turner was released Sept. 2 from a California jail after serving three months of a six-month sentence tied to the assault of the unconscious, intoxicated woman. He faced a maximum 14 years in prison, and the judge who sentenced him faces a recall effort.
Days before his release, the California State Assembly unanimously passed the bill proponents say will ensure convicted sexual assailants serve prison time instead of a jail sentences.
Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat who said he usually opposes adding more mandatory minimum sentences, signed the bill arguing it “brings a measure of parity to sentencing for criminal acts that are substantially similar.”
Through his attorney, Turner declined to comment to this newspaper. The 21-year-old is serving threeyears probation and is registered as a Tier III sex offender in Greene County.
More than two dozen groups dedicated to ending campus sexual assaults urged Brown to veto the bill, fearing the punishment would more likely be applied to minority and lower-in- come defendants, or that it would discourage victims from reporting.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, a Republican, told the Dayton Daily News no such law exists here, but he would favor one.
Brown also signed a bill permitting sexual assault victims to say in court that they were raped, even if the attack doesn’t meet the California law’s technical definition of rape as nonconsensual intercourse between a man and a woman, leaving out other forms of sexual assault, including Turner’s attack, which involved penetration.
The rape definition that came under fire in the Turner case leaves Brown in an awkward position as he promotes a November ballot initiative that would allow earlier parole consideration for nonviolent inmates to curb overcrowding. Turner’s crimes were considered nonviolent under state law because he assaulted a person who could not resist, so he didn’t have to use force.
— A 14-yearold ANDERSON, S.C. South Carolina boy was charged as a juvenile Friday with murder and three counts of attempted murder after authorities say he killed his father and opened fire on students at a school playground, wounding three people.
The boy did not show any emotion as he walked into the courtroom wearing a yellow jumpsuit. He was not wearing handcuffs or leg shackles, as required by state law in most juvenile cases.
His lawyer, Frank Epps, noted that the teen had given a statement to law enforcement and asked that investigators not question him again without his lawyer present. The judge agreed, and ordered the teen to be held in jail.
The boy’s mother sat on the front row during the brief hearing and left the courtroom sobbing and leaning on another woman.
Authorities say the teen shot his 47-year-old father Jeffrey Osborne at their home Wednesday afternoon before driving a pickup truck 3 miles down a country road to Townville Elementary. The teen — who is not old enough to have a driver’s license — crashed the truck at the school, where students were on recess, got out and started firing.
Bullets struck two students, critically injuring one of them, and a first-grade teacher.
Authorities have not released a motive for the killing or the shootings at the school. They have said the boy was being homeschooled, but have not explained why.
Prosecutors haven’t given any indication about whether they will ask to try the teen as an adult. When a juvenile accused of violent crimes is 14 or 15, a prosecutor has 30 days to ask a family court judge to try the teen as an adult. If denied, the prosecutor can appeal to the circuit court, which can order the transfer. Sixteen-yearolds accused of murder are automatically tried as adults in South Carolina.
Anderson 4 Superintendent Joanne Avery said staff saved lives by flawlessly implementing active-shooter training drills conducted with students at Townville Elementary, most recently as last week.
A teacher, though shot in the shoulder, “was with-it enough” to close the door, lock it and barricade the students, Avery said.
“If he’d gotten in the school, it would’ve been a different scenario,” she said.
Relatives of the most seriously wounded victim, 6-year-old Jacob Hall, said he remained on life support in a hospital. His family issued a statement late Thursday saying the boy sustained a major brain injury due to the amount of blood he lost after being shot in the leg.
Jacob has been unconscious since arriving at the hospital, his great-aunt Rebecca Hunnicutt told WYFF.
“As long as his heart’s beating, we’ve got hope,” she said. “We are hoping for a miracle. We’re praying for a miracle, and we’re expecting a miracle.”
Hunnicutt said Jacob has seven siblings, and his parents haven’t left his hospital room.
She described Jacob as “one of these kids that you’d swear was carved out of cream cheese. He is as beautiful on the inside as he is on the out.”