Santa Clara County Superior Court is the court I interned in.
Anyone still wonder why it scared me away from law?
Wealth privilege is rampant. Alumni privilege/cronyism is rampant. Racial privilege is rampant. Athletic privilege is rampant.
All factor into this case. Arguing about how much of what is a fool's errand. Is money more of a factor than race? Ultimately, yeah, always. But a white family needs less money to qualify for the privilege than a black family does, and that's where the racial privilege comes into play. One need only
look at the difference in sentencing between Cory Batey, a 19-year-old star football player for Vanderbilt, sentenced to a mandatory 15 - 25 years for three sexual assault-related felonies just a couple of months ago, and Brock Turner, the 19-year-old star swimmer.
Perhaps the worst part is, the way the justice system is currently structured, this will remain unchecked. These are the hurdles the good guys seek to clear, and it is a constant and never-ending struggle.
I don't believe the appeal has been filed, but the family has already obtained an appellate attorney, so it's likely.
Nietzsche, a famous philosopher toward the end of the 19th century, wrote extensively about what he considered the two fundamental types of morality, "master" and "slave". He argued that slave morality was centered around compassion and master morality around strength and status. Whereas slave morality measured the merit (or lack thereof) of behavior based on intentions, master morality measures the merit of a behavior on it's consequences. Not over all consequences, but immediate consequences. Swirl that around with the "20 minutes of action" comment from the senior turner. That kind of consequence. In other words, no consequence to his son, so no big deal.
Master morality is imparted by privilege, and simply doesn't account for compassion. It's not even part of the equation. And, that's how a family like the Turners can be so goddamn out of touch as to appeal an already insulting sentence.
Oh, how I hope it bites them in the ass in a devastating way.