Mandy Boardman, pictured on a local TV channel, waived her right to anonymity to protest the judge's decision

Experts say the judge’s sentence was unusual, given the crime, but was still well within the state’s sentencing guidelines.

"People are generally surprised [if] a crime like rape … does not include prison time, even a first-time offense," Joel Schumm, a law professor at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, told the Chicago Tribune.

Schumm said that the "normal starting point" for the "B-felony" rape of which Wise was convicted was a 10-year prison sentence. [Indiana has four categories of felonies -- A, B, C and D felonies, with A felonies being the worst].

But he added, "There’s not a requirement that any of that time is in prison - there’s not even a requirement to be on home detention."

Outraged members of the public have taken to Judge Eisgruber's re-election Facebook page to express their anger over the sentencing.

"You should be ashamed of yourself for your ridiculous 'sentence' of David Wise. He DRUGGED and RAPED his wife repeatedly, and you gave him a slap on the wrist and victim-shamed her," one commenter wrote. "You are a disgrace to your profession."

"I'm curious: do you tell robbery victims that they need to forgive their assailants?" another person wrote. "Do you tell victims of fraud that they need to forgive the criminals who swindled them? Why must someone who is repeatedly sexually assaulted by someone she trusted and loved supposed to forgive him?"

Deputy Prosecutor Courtney Curtis, who handled the case and pushed for a 40-year sentence, told The LA Times that she was not allowed to express an opinion about the judge's sentence, but noted that the crime certainly seemed to warrant a prison term.

"In these types of cases, we always ask for prison time because they are violent crimes of a horrible, horrific nature," Curtis said. "The fact that someone drugged their wife - drugged anyone - for three years, and then videotaped that - we always ask for prison time, and that’s what we asked for in this circumstance."

Words: Anna Brech

US judge spares rapist from jail and tells victim to forgive him