LOS ANGELES — A California appeals courtroom has overturned the rape conviction of former San Francisco 49er Dana Stubblefield after figuring out prosecutors made racially discriminatory statements through the Black man’s trial.
The retired soccer participant was sentenced to fifteen years to life in jail in October 2020 after being convicted of raping a developmentally disabled girl in 2015 who prosecutors stated he lured to his residence with the promise of a babysitting job.
The Sixth Court docket of Appeals discovered Wednesday that prosecutors violated the California Racial Justice Act of 2020, a regulation handed throughout a summer time of protest over the police killing of George Floyd. The measure bars prosecutors from looking for a prison conviction or imposing a sentence on the foundation of race.
Previous to the regulation, defendants who wished to problem their convictions on the premise of racial bias needed to show there was “purposeful discrimination,” a troublesome authorized normal to satisfy.
The appeals courtroom stated prosecutors used “racially discriminatory language” that required them to overturn Stubblefield’s conviction.
The case was “contaminated with large error from the minute we began the trial,” stated Stubblefield’s lead lawyer, Kenneth Rosenfeld.
In April 2015, Stubblefield contacted the then-31-year-old girl on a babysitting web site and organized an interview, prosecutors stated.
Based on a report by the Morgan Hill Police Division, the interview lasted about 20 minutes. She later obtained a textual content from Stubblefield saying he wished to pay her for her time that day, and she or he went again to the home.
The lady reported to the police that Stubblefield raped her at gunpoint, then gave her $80 and let her go. DNA proof matched that of Stubblefield, the report stated.
Through the trial, prosecutors stated police by no means searched Stubblefield’s home and by no means launched a gun into proof, saying it was as a result of he was well-known Black man and it will “open up a storm of controversy,” based on the appellate determination.
By saying Stubblefield’s race was a think about regulation enforcement’s determination to not search his home, prosecutors implied the home would’ve been searched and a gun discovered had Stubblefield not been Black, the appeals courtroom stated. The reference to controversy additionally hyperlinks Stubblefield to the occasions after the current killing of Floyd primarily based on his race.
Protection attorneys stated there was no rape, and Stubblefield stated the girl consented to intercourse in trade for cash.
“The trial had a biased decide who didn’t permit the proof from the protection, the truth that she was a intercourse employee, to be heard in entrance of a jury,” Rosenfeld stated. He known as the incident a “transactional event” between Stubblefield and the girl.
He stays in custody till a listening to subsequent week, throughout which his attorneys will ask a decide to approve a movement to launch him. Prosecutors have a number of choices, together with asking the courtroom to remain their determination to allow them to enchantment to the state’s Supreme Court docket, or refile fees.
The Santa Clara District Lawyer’s Workplace stated it was “finding out the opinion.”
Stubblefield started his 11-year lineman profession within the NFL with the 49ers in 1993 because the league’s defensive rookie of the 12 months. He later received the NFL Defensive Participant of the Yr honors in 1997 earlier than leaving the staff to play for Washington. He returned to the Bay Space to complete his profession, taking part in with the 49ers in 2000-01 and the Raiders in 2003.
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