Emily Doe, the anonymous woman who was assaulted by Brock Turner on the Stanford University campus in 2015, is writing a memoir, according to her publisher, Viking Books. In a statement released today, Viking said that the new nonfiction book “will reclaim the story of her sexual assault, expose the arduous nature of the legal system, and emerge as a bold, unifying voice.” The memoir will be published in September 2019.
The California woman known as Emily Doe met Turner at a Stanford University fraternity party in 2015 while visiting her sister. As Turner was assaulting her outside, two Stanford graduate students who happened upon the attack confronted Turner, who gave chase before they tackled him. The trial of Turner gained national notoriety when he was sentenced to only six months in county jail, of which he served three, despite being convicted of three felonies, including assault with intent to commit rape. The case became a referendum on both sexual assault on campus and white male privilege long before the #MeToo movement—the judge, Aaron Persky, whose controversial sentencing caused outrage across the country, was recalled by a referendum vote in Santa Clara County last year.
After Turner’s sentencing, BuzzFeed published the victim’s impact statement Emily Doe read in court, which went viral for its unvarnished depiction of the assault and its traumatic aftermath, and her moving courage in confronting her abuser. Viking editor in chief Andrea Schulz said, “Emily Doe’s experience illuminates a culture built to protect perpetrators and a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable. The book will introduce readers to the writer whose words have already changed their world and move them with its accounting of her courage and resilience.”