Dana Stubblefield’s Conviction for Rape Is Overturned by an Appeals Court

After concluding that prosecutors made racially prejudiced remarks during the Black man’s trial, a California appeals court reversed the rape conviction of former San Francisco 49er Dana Stubblefield.

The former football star was found guilty of raping a lady with developmental disabilities in 2015, whom authorities claimed he enticed to his house with the pretext of a babysitting job. In October 2020, he was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

Prosecutors were found to have violated the California Racial Justice Act of 2020, which was passed during protests over George Floyd’s death, by the Sixth Court of Appeals on Wednesday. The law prohibits prosecutors from using race as a reason for a criminal conviction or sentencing.

What’s next for Dana Stubblefield

Before the statute, defendants wishing to contest their convictions on the grounds of racial bias had to establish “purposeful discrimination,” which was a challenging legal threshold to satisfy.

The appeals court ruled that prosecutors had to reverse Stubblefield’s conviction because they had used “racially discriminatory language.” Kenneth Rosenfeld, Stubblefield’s primary lawyer, claimed that the case was “infected with tremendous error from the minute we started the trial.”

He is still being held until a hearing the following week when his lawyers will request that a court grant a motion to free him. Among the alternatives available to prosecutors are refiling charges or requesting that the court postpone its ruling so that they can appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The office of the Santa Clara district attorney stated that it was “examining the viewpoint.”

In 1993, Stubblefield was named the league’s defensive rookie of the year and started his 11-year NFL lineman career with the 49ers. Before departing the team to play for Washington, he went on to win the 1997 NFL Defensive Player of the Year award. He played for the 49ers in 2000–01 and the Raiders in 2003 after returning to the Bay Area to complete his career.

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