Let’s talk about our justice system for a moment.
A Montana teacher rapes his 14-year-old student. She later commits suicide. The judge presiding over his case tells him he’s suffered enough by losing his wife and job because of the alleged sexual assault. He then adds that the teenager was “older than her chronological age.” Judge sentences man to 30 days in jail. And today he is walking free.
That’s what’s happening to Stacey Rambold, after a judge gave him a lenient sentence that outraged us all and further confirmed how acceptable rape culture is in our society.
The silver lining in all of this is that Rambold won’t be exactly “free.” He’s on probation for the next 14 years, 11 months.
But that’s not enough for the victim’s mother.
“(Judge G. Todd Baugh) made a mistake and I’m disappointed, (31) days, that’s outrageous, but the Montana Supreme Court stepped in. Hopefully they’ll make it right,” said Auliea Hanlon, whose daughter, Cherice Moralez, committed suicide before Rambold went to trial.
And speaking of Judge Baugh, the petition to remove him for his negligence is growing by the day.
On Tuesday, the Montana and Pennsylvania chapters of the National Organization for Women and an activist group called Ultraviolet filed a complaint with a judicial review board, CNN affiliate KULR reported. More than 140,000 people signed accompanying petitions, the groups said.
“If we can’t get him removed from this, there is something wrong with the system, and I know people in the state will work to not get (Baugh) re-elected (next year),” said Marian Bradley, president of Montana NOW.
Here’s hoping Cherice Moralez gets the justice she deserves.
SOURCE: CNN | PHOTO CREDIT: Police Department
