SAN JOSE — Dana Stubblefield could be freed from state prison as soon as next week after an appellate court and the state Attorney General’s Office sided with the former San Francisco 49ers star in his pursuit of a bail hearing in Santa Clara County following the reversal of his 2020 rape conviction.
Former San Francisco 49er Dana Stubblefield, second from right, sits at a press conference with his attorneys, including Kenneth Rosenfeld, left of Stubblefield, in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, May 3, 2016. Stubblefield is seeking bail and his release from prison after an appellate court overturned his 2020 rape conviction late last year. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group file photo)
Stubblefield’s attorneys say they expect their client to be transferred from Corcoran State Prison — where he has been held for nearly four years — to the Hall of Justice in San Jose in time for a Feb. 7 court hearing. They plan to argue for bail and supervised release, on the grounds that Stubblefield no longer has a conviction to keep him incarcerated.
“I’m expecting Dana Stubblefield will be walking out the same door I’m walking out of,” lead defense attorney Kenneth Rosenfeld said Friday.
Superior Court Judge Hector Ramon ruled Jan. 17 that he did not have jurisdiction to hold a bail hearing for Stubblefield, arguing that the case was still under the purview of the Sixth District Court of Appeal, which vacated his conviction and sentence Dec. 26.
Ramon contended that his hands were tied until the appellate court issued a remittitur — a technical ruling that makes the judgment final and returns jurisdiction — which cannot occur earlier than Feb. 25.
Stubblefield’s legal team objected to the ruling in a petition to the Sixth District court, which issued its own ruling Jan. 24 stating that the “court is considering issuing a peremptory writ” that would order Ramon to hold a bail hearing.
Then on Thursday, Deputy Attorney General Moona Nandi — whose office represented the Superior Court in the matter — filed a response that amounted to a “full concession” to Stubblefield’s stance that Ramon did indeed have jurisdiction to evaluate bail.
“Whether to release petitioner pending appeal is a separate, collateral matter from the substance of his appeal, i.e., the validity of his convictions. Respondent court has jurisdiction to consider it,” Nandi wrote in her filing.
Rosenfeld said “the law is clear as day,” and that “it was an absolutely incorrect reading of the law” for Stubblefield to be denied a bail hearing.
In the reversal decision, a three-judge panel for the Sixth District court ruled that Stubblefield’s conviction and 15-year prison term were “legally invalid” after finding that a Santa Clara County prosecutor violated the Racial Justice Act when he suggested to jurors in closing arguments that police opted not to search Stubblefield’s home for a gun because he was a famous Black man.
The panel concluded that because of this, race expressly affected the availability of evidence for the jury to consider in determining Stubblefield’s guilt. He had been charged with using a gun to threaten and then rape a woman who had come to his Morgan Hill home to interview for a babysitting job in 2015.
Related Articles
San Jose: Ex-councilmember Omar Torres working toward plea in child sex abuse case, attorney says
An Oakland man has a serious legal problem: His attack dogs have developed a taste for cops and security guards
Shooting kills 31-year-old man at East Bay intersection
Serial rapist who targeted women in East Bay sentenced to prison
Oakland man charged with cleaning out Berkeley apartments, university dorms in burglary spree
Stubblefield — who played for the 49ers from 1993 to 2001 — and his defense team have long contended that he engaged in a paid sexual encounter with his accuser, identified in the appellate ruling as Jane Doe, and that he initially lied to cover up the tryst but never assaulted her.
The state Attorney General’s Office can appeal the Sixth District’s reversal ruling to the California Supreme Court, and if it is denied or decides against it, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office would have to decide whether to re-file the charges against Stubblefield.
But while all that is sorted out, his attorneys insist that he should be freed.
“Our main issue is getting Dana home to his family,” Rosenfeld said. “This is a man who has been deemed legally innocent. How is he still sitting in prison?”
