The woman who was sexually assaulted by former Stanford University student Brock Turner, known during her legal proceedings as Emily Doe, is revealing her real name and introducing herself to the world, ahead of her upcoming memoir about her story and the global impact of her case.
Chanel Miller has written “Know My Name,” in which “she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words,” according to her publisher, Viking, which will release the book on Sept. 24.
In 2016, Turner was convicted for sexually assaulting Miller outside a fraternity party in 2015. The case made widespread headlines, particularly when the county judge, Aaron Persky, sentenced Turner to just six months in jail, despite facing up to 14 years.
Persky believed that Turner was “remorseful,” even though he never admitted guilt in raping Miller. Turner, who had been a star swimmer at Stanford, only ended up serving three of the six months.
Miller’s victim impact statement, which she read at Turner’s sentencing hearing, went viral and drew attention from around the world, including from lawmakers in Congress. Miller’s powerful remarks and Turner’s lenient sentence sparked new conversations about rape culture and white male privilege, and led California to pass minimum sentencing requirements for sexual assault cases. In 2018, voters recalled Persky, the first judge in California to be successfully recalled since 1932.
On Wednesday, CBS’ “60 Minutes” announced that it will air Miller’s first interview on Sept. 22 and released a clip of her reading her impact statement.
Miller graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and now lives in San Francisco, where she works as a writer and artist, according to her author biography.
She has been working on the book since early 2017, her publisher told The New York Times, aiming to process her sexual assault and the trial, as well as her trauma and recovery process. The book expanded its focus and relevance since the groundswell of the Me Too movement in the fall of 2017.
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.