How Easy Would It Be to Recall the Judge in the Brock Turner Case? [TheMarshallProject.org]

Prosecutors had recommended that the defendant, Brock Turner, a star swimmer, be sentenced to six years in state prison, and public sympathy for the victim was running high, especially after she delivered an impassioned 7,000-word statement in the courtroom and online.

After the sentencing last Thursday, hundreds of thousands of people became outraged, and social media lit up with calls — including one by a Stanford law professor — that the judge be recalled by popular vote. By Tuesday afternoon, a Change.org petition in support of that recall had accumulated over 415,000 signatures.

Yet recalling a sitting judge is almost unheard of, both in California and nationally. Nineteen states and Washington, D.C., allow the recall of state officials, but only eight allow it for judges — because the judicial branch is traditionally seen as deserving protection from popular whim, political pressure, or, as in this case, the increasing influence of social media.

“Recall is much, much more common for local and municipal officials, like school board officials and city council members,” said William Raftery, a senior analyst for the National Center for State Courts. “Judges are only supposed to face recall, if at all, when they’ve committed a crime while in office or are deemed physically or mentally incompetent to actually do their job.”