Aaron Persky

Michael Aaron Persky is an American attorney and former judge who sat on the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara bench from 2003 to 2018. He gained attention after his ruling in the case People v. Turner, in which he sentenced Stanford University student Brock Turner to 6 months in prison for the sexual assault and attempted rape of an unconscious 22-year-old woman, Chanel Miller. Despite allegations that race, gender, and class bias influenced his lenient sentencing of Turner, the California Commission on Judicial Performance found no wrongdoing in their investigation of the case. Nonetheless, Persky was recalled by voters on June 5, 2018, during the 2018 California primary elections.