Recall Judge Persky

Call It What You Will Salinas

This episode we speak with Professor Michele Dauber from the Recall Judge Aaron Persky campaign. Why would a group be working to recall a judge? Many of you have probably heard of the infamous Brock Turner case that took place in Santa Clara County. Brock Turner was convicted on three counts of felony sexual assault. Judge Persky sentenced Turner to a 6 month sentence of which, Turner served only 3. Normally, a 2 year sentence would be deemed the normal sentence for this crime, but a judge does have leeway to reduce the sentence based on a defendant's lack of criminal history and the effect of the incarceration. However, as you will hear in this episode, Judge Persky has a pattern of being lenient on defendants in sexual assault cases and even in a case involving child pornography. Community members came together to form a campaign to recall Judge Persky before his next election in 2022.

It is important to note that a recall vote does not remove a candidate from office, it is simply moving up the election date sooner. This recall effort will require 90,000 signatures in 160 days, but as you will hear, there is an amazing group of volunteers willing to get the work done.