The lawyer for Brock Turner, who was convicted of attempted rape but received only six months in prison, was back in court trying to get the conviction overturned. Erick Multhaup explained to the judges that his client was practicing "sexual outercourse," and did not intend to rape his victim behind a garbage dumpster.
“I absolutely don’t understand what you are talking about,” Justice Franklin D. Elia replied.
Multhaup argued that because Turner was fully clothed when he was found by two students on top of his victim, the jury erred in convicting him because the fact that he still had his clothes on can lead to reasonable doubt that he did not intend to rape his victim.
Judge Elia questioned his argument, pointing out it is not up to the judges to decide if the jury was right or wrong.
“We are not in a position to say (of the jury), you should have gone a different way.”
Following his conviction, Turner served half of the six-month prison sentence and has moved back to Ohio. Turner is hoping to have his conviction overturned so he would not have to register as a Tier III sex offender for the rest of his life.
The three-judge panel has 90 days to decide if they believe his conviction should be overturned.
Assistant Attorney General Alisha Carlile did not appear to be swayed by Multhaup's argument calling it a “far-fetched version of events."
The judge who sentenced Turner was the first judge to be recalled in California in over 80 years following the outrage over the lenient sentence.
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