San Jose, California - Brock Turner, the former Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexually assaulting a young woman on campus, was handed a package by guards as he exited a California jail on Friday after serving half of his six-month sentence: A big packet of hate mail.
Turner's early release for good behaviour was the latest turn in a case that sparked a widespread outcry by many who believed he was given preferential treatment and too light a sentence for the January 2015 assault.
For hours after his pre-dawn release from the Santa Clara County jail, about 200 people demonstrated outside, calling for the judge in the case to resign.
Wearing a wrinkled dress shirt, Turner walked with his head down and didn't say a word as he made his way through a gauntlet of television camera lights and into a waiting SUV. The 21-year-old intends to live with his parents near Dayton, Ohio, where he is required to register for life as a sex offender.
There, about a dozen protesters stood outside the Turner's home in Sugarcreek Township, as police watched. One man's hand-lettered sign said "Let only pain & misery fall upon those who rape their fellow person."
Turner was convicted of assaulting the woman near a trash bin after they drank heavily at a fraternity party. The woman had passed out and Turner was on top of her when confronted by two graduate students passing by on bicycles. They chased and tackled him when he tried to flee, holding him on the ground until police arrived.
A jury in March found Turner guilty of three felony sexual assault counts. Judge Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky sentenced him to six months in jail, citing the "extraordinary circumstances" of Turner's youth, clean criminal record and other considerations in departing from the minimum sentence of two years in prison. Prosecutors had argued for six years.
Turner's case exploded on social media and ignited a debate about campus rape and the criminal justice system after the victim's 7,200-word letter to Turner that she read in the courtroom during sentencing was published online.
"I want to show people that one night of drinking can ruin two lives," she wrote. "You and me. You are the cause, I am the effect."
Following Turner's release from jail, Sheriff Laurie Smith said she believed his sentence was too light. "He should be in prison right now, but he's not in our custody," she told reporters.
Smith said jail guards gave Turner a big package of hate mail sent to him over the last three months and that Turner lived in protective custody in jail after receiving threats.
She also urged Governor Jerry Brown to sign a bill passed by California Assembly that would require harsher punishment for the same crime Turner committed. Brown hasn't said whether he will sign it.
"The law has to be that if you rape someone who is unconscious and intoxicated you go to state prison," she said. "And that bill is on the governor's desk right now, and we're urging the governor to sign it."