The California Supreme Court has agreed to review an appellate court’s , likely putting off local prosecutors’ decision on pursuing a second trial through at least the end of this year.

reversal of a rape conviction for former San Francisco 49ers star Dana Stubblefield

Justices on Wednesday granted a review of a petition from the state Attorney General’s Office, representing the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, to challenge a decision in December by the Sixth District Court of Appeal to and 15-years-to-life prison term.

overturn Stubblefield’s 2020 conviction

The appellate court found that a prosecutor’s remarks to jurors in closing arguments violated the state’s Racial Justice Act, which aims to provide relief to defendants whose trials were prejudiced by racial bias. The petition argues that the Sixth District ruling was not tantamount to an exoneration and that any violation of the act did not warrant the vacating of the conviction and corresponding sentence.

But no formal arguments before the Supreme Court will happen anytime soon: The court stated that it won’t accept legal briefs from the stakeholders until after it adjudicates two automatic death penalty appeals from Los Angeles County that address the Racial Justice Act.

“We’re not shocked and this changes nothing. They haven’t said Court of Appeal is wrong. The practical effect is this case is going to get delayed for quite a while before there is any resolution to it,” said Kenneth Rosenfeld, Stubblefield’s lead trial attorney. “We respect the process and know this will take time.”

There is no estimate for when those priority cases might be decided, but another high-profile conviction reversal in Santa Clara County might provide a useful reference point. In 2022, an appellate court — who fatally beat mentally ill inmate Michael Tyree in 2015 — because a legal argument made at trial, known as natural and probable consequences, was outlawed by the state Legislature and retroactively applied to their case.

overturned murder convictions for three former Santa Clara County jail guards