About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

52 Wake Forest L. Rev. 157 (2017)
Victim Impact Statements and Expressive Punishment in the Age of Social Media

handle is hein.journals/wflr52 and id is 165 raw text is: VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENTS AND EXPRESSIVE PUNISHMENT IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA Erin Sheley* INTRODUCTION The facts of the case are now famous. A young woman attends a Stanford party with her younger sister.1 A few hours later, two Swedish graduate students on bicycles stumble upon freshman swimmer (and Olympic hopeful) Brock Turner, manually penetrating her unconscious body behind a dumpster.2 He flees; they give chase.3 She awakes in a hospital room to discover- gradually and horrifyingly-that she has been the victim of sexual assault.4 After a jury finds Turner guilty at trial,5 the victim-now referred to by the media, and in this Essay, as Emily Doe-delivers a victim impact statement at his sentencing.6 Judge Aaron Persky sentences Turner to a mere six months in a county jail.7 Emily's victim impact statement goes viral on social media,8 tearing open a space in the national discourse most recently occupied by the University of Virginia student who lied to The Rolling Stone about a frat house gang rape.9 But no one questioned Emily's veracity * Assistant Professor, University of Calgary Faculty of Law. 1. Thomas Fuller, Court Papers Give Insight into Stanford Sex Assault, N.Y. TIMEs (June 12, 2016), http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/13/us/brock -turner-stanford-rape.html. 2. Id. 3. Id. 4. See id. 5. Id. 6. Lindsey Bever, 'You Took Away My Worth'- A Sexual Assault Victim's Powerful Message to Her Stanford Attacker, WASH. POST: EARLY LEAD (June 4, 2016), https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/06/04/you-took -away-my-worth-a-rape-victim-delivers-powerful-message-to-a-former-stanford -swimmer. 7. Fuller, supra note 1. 8. Id. 9. See, e.g., Gary Robertson, Rolling Stone Defamation Trial: UVA Student Who Made Up Rape Story Got Tattoo to Mark It, HUFFINGTON POsT (Oct. 21, 2016, 8:55 P.M.), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rolling-stone-rape -trial us580ab5cbe4bOcdea3d87a857. 157

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most