The Super Bowl champion and former San Francisco 49ers star, Dana Stubblefield, was released on Tuesday after his rape conviction in 2020 was canceled by a California court of appeal.
Stubblefield, who is black, had his conviction canceled after the sixth court of appeal determined that the prosecutors had made discriminatory statements racially during his trial.
The sixth Court of Appeal concluded that the prosecutor had violated the California’s racial justice law of 2020, which had been adopted during the summer of racial injustice after the police killed George Floyd.
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The defensive platform of San Francisco 49ers Dana Stubblefield before a match against the Vikings of Minnesota in Candlestick Park. (USA Today Sports)
The prosecutors said during the trial that the police had never searched Stubblefield’s house and had never introduced a weapon in evidence, saying it was because he was a famous black man, and that “would open a storm of controversy “, according to the decision of the Court of Appeal.
The court said that determining that the Stubblefield race had been a factor in the decision of the application of the laws to give up searching for his house, the prosecutors had suggested that the house would have been searched and that a weapon would not have been noted if Stubblefield had not been black.
Stubblefield has stayed in prison since December because a judge of the lower court said that he did not have jurisdiction to grant a deposit or a release.
The release of Stubblefield was granted after the prosecutor’s office general and the appeal office painted.
Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Hector Ramon granted the release of Stubblefield on Friday.
The California Court of Appeal cancels the rape conviction of the Super Bowl champion due to racial discrimination
The former NFL football player Dana Stubblefield, left a federal courthouse in San Francisco on January 18, 2008. (Photo / jeff chiu, file)
Stubblefield had served almost four years in his 15 -year sentence.
“Finally, an innocent man is no longer seated in a cage far from his family,” said Stubblefield’s defense lawyer Kenneth Rosenfeld, in a statement.
Stubblefield was sentenced to 15 years in life in October 2020, when he was found guilty of having violated a developing woman in development in 2015 who, prosecutors, said he had attracted to his place with the promise of a job of baby-sitting.
Defense lawyers argued that no rape had occurred and that Stubblefield said that the woman had consented to sex in exchange for money.
Stubblefield played in the NFL for 11 years and was appointed defensive recruit of the year with the 49ers in 1993.
The defensive platform of Oakland Raiders Dana Stubblefield in a match against the Browns of Cleveland at Cleveland Browns Stadium in Cleveland on October 12, 2003. (Matthew Emmons / USA TODAY SPORTS)
Bowler’s quarter three times was appointed defensive player of the year in 1997 after having recorded 15 bags.
After five seasons with the 49ers, Stubblefield played for the Washington Redskins for three seasons before joining the 49ers for two more seasons.
After his second visit with the 49ers, Stubblefield played a season for the Oakland Raiders before retiring after the 2003 season.
