LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman has thrown his weight — and his money — behind a Crowdpac campaign to recall the Judge Aaron Persky, who delivered the sentence in the Brock Turner rape case, Business Insider reports.
LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman graduated from Stanford University, where Brock Turner was a student.
Hoffman has committed $25,000 to the campaign funding efforts to recall the California judge who was re-elected for six years in June, after running unopposed.
The Stanford alumnus explained his motivation for supporting the recall campaign in a blog post yesterday.
"This woefully unjust sentence sends a powerful message about how our culture systematically discounts and excuses sexual violence against women," the LinkedIn founder writes. "To counteract that message, we must send equally powerful messages that signal our demand for reform."
A campaign to recall Judge Aaron Persky was launched by a Sanford law professor, following his light sentence in the Brock Turner case.
Judge Persky sentenced Turner to six months in jail, a sentence which has been called unusually lenient by legal experts.
Turner, a 21-year-old former Stanford University swimmer, was convicted on three counts of sexual assault of an unconscious woman outside of a frat party earlier this year.
The crime would normally carry a minimum of two years in prison, to a maximum of 14 years. Turner was released Friday on good behaviour after serving just three months.
Demonstrators lined up as he left prison chanting: "Hey hey, ho ho, Judge Persky has got to go," CNN reports.
"This woefully unjust sentence sends a powerful message about how our culture systematically discounts and excuses sexual violence against women."
Hoffman noted that the deadline to register as an opponent against Judge Persky passed in March, before he issued Turner's sentence in June.
The recall campaign is being led by Michele Landis Dauber, a Stanford law professor who has been outspoken about sexual assault on campus, according to The Guardian.
The earliest a recall election can be held is November 2017 and requires signatures from 20 per cent of registered voters or about 80,000 signatures.
In response to the campaign and in an effort to keep his job, Judge Persky has started a counter-campaign and fundraising effort, "Retain Judge Persky."
His fundraising efforts have so far yielded about $3,600, compared to $300,000 from various recall efforts, Mercury News reports.
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