Brock Turner's Lawyer Insists to Appeals Court That His Client Wanted 'Outercourse'

Back in December, San Jose’s Mercury News reported that Brock Turner, the former Stanford swimmer who spent a mere three months in jail after being convicted on charges of assaulting and attempting to rape an intoxicated woman, was appealing this decision.

On Tuesday, Turner’s lawyer, Eric Multhaup, attempted to convince an appellate court that his client’s conviction should be overturned on the grounds that Turner wanted “outercourse” with his victim, not intercourse. Multhaup went on to furnish a description of “outercourse” which he defined as fully-clothed sexual contact. According to the Mercury News’ report Multhaup was focused specifically on trying to get Turner’s attempted rape conviction reversed.

Mercury News reported that the panel of justices, who have 90 days to issue a ruling, “appeared skeptical of [Multhaup’s] argument.” Justice Franklin D. Elia said in response to the lawyer’s display, “I absolutely don’t understand what you are talking about.”

In March 2016, Turner was found guilty of three felony counts stemming from his assault of a woman during a Kappa Alpha frat party in January, 2015. The conviction was based upon accounts from witnesses who said they saw Turner thrusting his hips on top of an unconscious, partially clothed woman. Although he didn’t serve much time, as a result of his conviction Turner has to register as a sex offender fo the rest of his life.

Michele Dauber, the Stanford law school professor who spearheaded the campaign to recall Judge Aaron Persky after he handed down Turner’s absurdly lenient sentence, told Mercury New on Tuesday, “Now [Turner] has a brand new story. It’s inappropriate to ask the appeals court to substitute its judgment for the jury.”