Aaron Persky

Michael Aaron Persky (born March 7, 1962) is an American attorney and former judge of the Santa Clara County Superior Court from 2003 to 2018. In 2016, Persky gained national attention after his ruling in the case People v. Turner, in which he sentenced Stanford University student Brock Turner to six months in jail for the sexual assault and attempted rape of an unconscious 22-year-old woman, Chanel Miller, using the sentence recommended by the Santa Clara County Probation Department. The sentence led to public outrage and was criticized by prosecutors and victims' rights advocates as being influenced by race, gender, and class bias. However, the California Commission on Judicial Performance found that there was not clear and convincing evidence of wrongdoing in their investigation of the case. Nonetheless, in the June 2018 primary elections, voters overwhelmingly recalled Persky, with 61.51% in favor, making Persky the first judge in California to be recalled since 1932. Prior to joining the bench, he practiced civil litigation for five years and was a prosecutor in Santa Clara County for six years. He also briefly coached girls' tennis at Lynbrook High School in the fall of 2019.