Social media is buzzing with anger on both sides of the debate over the 15 year sentence handed down on Friday to a black man convicted of gang-raping a woman while allegedly uttering harsh racial slurs.
Vanderbilt football player Corey Batey was one of four members of the football team charged with repeatedly violating the woman while she was passed out at a party — sexually assaulting her and urinating on her while, according to multiple reports, uttering racial slurs directed at white people. The players were also accused of taking graphic photos and video of themselves with the girl’s limp body, and leaving her face down in a hallway. Batey and one other player were convicted; the other two players are awaiting trial.
The polarizing debate over Batey’s sentence has people on one side enraged that he wasn’t charged with a hate crime for the racially charged attack on a white victim. On the other side of the debate, observers on social media are decrying a relatively tough sentence for a black defendant compared to the light sentence given in California to another convicted college rapist, Brock Turner, who is white.
Those activists — particularly feminists — who found Turner’s sentence too harsh are pointing directly at the Brock Turner case as evidence of the double standard. Turner, the Stanford swimmer who was also convicted of raping an unconscious co-ed, will serve six months at most.
Brock Turner, got 3 months in jail for same crime. Notice any difference between them? https://t.co/NIcCjJpN1e
— Joe Trippi (@JoeTrippi) July 16, 2016
As opposed to Brock Turner who got 3 months for raping an unconscious woman.
GEE, WHICH ONE DO YOU THINK IS BLACK? ???? https://t.co/PD1bZWN7AB— Kerri Lyn (@GoddessKerriLyn) July 16, 2016
#AllLivesDidntMatter when Brock Turner got 6 months for rape, but Cory Batey gets 15-20 years for the same crime. ???? pic.twitter.com/rTPh76mbny
— lol (@quitfeenin) July 11, 2016
In the Vanderbilt case, Tennessee’s minimum sentencing provisions played a role: The criminal court judge acknowledged that Batey’s case was “one of the saddest” she’d encountered, and that she recognized giving him the mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years would likely ruin his life.
“All of the defendants in this case basically have life sentences,” the judge told the court during sentencing. “After they get out of jail or prison they will be on the sex-offender registry for the rest of their lives. That’s a life sentence in and of itself.”
So what of the observers angry that Batey wasn’t charged with a hate crime and sent away for life? They point to the reports that Batey yelled, “That’s for 400 years of slavery you b—-,” as he urinated on the victim’s face — and they suggest that a white defendant convicted of so racially charged an attack would have certainly faced hate crime as well as rape charges.
Batey’s victim herself mentioned the racial slurs to the court in her powerful victim impact statement. The woman, who does not remember the rape, said she only realized the full horror of what happened to her when she saw the video and pictures the men took of her being violated.
“Mr. Batey continued to abuse and degrade me, urinating on my face while uttering horrific racial hate speech that suggested I deserved what he was doing to me because of the color of my skin. He didn’t even know who I was,” she said.
Nonetheless, the was no hate crime prosecution.
Why is this not a hate crime?
Batey said to his victim “That's for 400 years of slavery you b—-”
https://t.co/hy8LZFvYcd— John Salmeier (@JohnSalmeier) July 17, 2016
This was rape AND a hate crime! Batey gets minimum. No justice served. Shameful! #JudgeMonteWatkins #vandytrial https://t.co/ZUcWSwARvC
— Lydia Lynn (@LydiaLynn89) July 15, 2016
Bately, who cried during the proceedings, issued a tearful apology for his behavior. His parents and two pastors also spoke on his behalf and asked the victim’s family for forgiveness. Batey, who has a young child, must serve all 15 years of his sentence and once released will be a registered sex offender for life.
