On Tuesday, residents of Santa Clara County voted to have Judge Aaron Persky removed from office. Judge Persky no longer has the support of the people after the Stanford rape case. This is the first time in 80 years that a judge was voted off.

In California, county judges are selected based on votes. If enough people sign a petition to have them removed from office, a voting will take place. Recalling back to the Stanford case – Brock Turner, a Stanford student, was caught raping a girl who was unconscious. Turner was 20 at the time of the incident and the rape victim was 22. Both were intoxicated, however, she was not conscious. Two other students had caught him sexually assaulting his victim in an alley by trash bins. The incident had occurred in 2015. Over a year later, Turner was found guilty in court. District attorneys had asked for him to be sentenced 6 years in prison. However, Judge Persky at the time only gave him a six-month sentence following 3 years on probation. This raised concerns from the public. Persky argued that serving longer in prison would have a horrible impact on the student. After only serving 3 months in county jail, Turner was released. People were outraged and thought he deserved to be punished longer.

Leaders in the county have been collecting signatures since last June. They collected over 58 thousand signatures in 160 days. The people voted yesterday to finalize the removal of Judge Aaron Persky. A Stanford professor stated, “We voted today against impunity for high-status perpetrators of sexual assault.” Leaving Aaron Persky no longer in office.