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The attorney for former San Francisco 49er Dana Stubblefield on Thursday said the Santa Clara County 6th District Court of Appeals has thrown out his 2020 rape conviction.
Stubblefield, who played defensive lineman for both the 49ers and the Oakland Raiders, was convicted in July of 2020 of rape by force, oral copulation by force and false imprisonment of a 34-year-old disabled woman at gunpoint. Stubblefield was accused of committing the crime in 2015 at his Morgan Hill home. He was found not guilty of rape and oral copulation of a person incapable of giving consent.
Stubblefield was sentenced in October of 2020 to serve 15 to life in prison for his crimes. At the time of his conviction, his attorney said his client’s name would be cleared when an appeal was filed.
Defense attorneys argued the jury did not get all the information available in the case and there were racial undertones to arguments made by the prosecution.
“It was a consensual encounter. She was a paid for sex worker and that is what brought about this encounter. We knew if the jury heard all of the info they would have come to the same conclusion,” said Stubblefield’s trial lawyer Allen Sawyer. “A lot of the evidence was withheld and the context of the argument the appellate court felt was racially motivated against Mr. Stubblefield.”
Sawyer said the defense team will be asking for their client to be released from prison as soon as next week.
It will be up to the Santa Clara County District Attorney to decide about a retrial. When asked for comment on the case Thursday afternoon, the district attorney’s office responded that they are studying the court’s opinion.
Stubblefield started his 11-year career in the NFL with the 49ers in 1993 after being selected in the first round. He won the award as the league’s defensive rookie of the year in his first season, anchored the defense on the team that won Super Bowl XXIX in 1995 against the San Diego Chargers.
He later won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors in 1997 before leaving the team to play for Washington. He would return to the Bay Area to finish his career, playing with the 49ers in 2000-01 and the Raiders in 2003.
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