(CNN)Widespread outrage has erupted over a California judge’s decision to give a former Stanford University swimmer a six-month jail sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. Critics are blasting the decision as far too lenient.
Prosecutors had asked that Brock Turner be sentenced to six years in prison for the January 2015 assault.
The controversial sentence was followed by the release of two dueling letters to the judge about the case that have been widely shared and sparked further outcry: one from the victim, who described her ordeal in 12 searing pages; and another from Turner’s father, who dismissed his son’s crime as “20 minutes of action.”