SAN JOSE — Dana Stubblefield will remain in state prison for the time being after a Santa Clara County judge declined to make a bail ruling for the former San Francisco 49ers star, whose 2020 rape conviction and sentence were overturned late last year by an appellate court that found racial bias tainted his trial.
Superior Court Judge Hector Ramon declared Friday that he cannot grant bail or release for Stubblefield because the case remains under the jurisdiction of the Sixth District Court of Appeal, which vacated the conviction in a Dec. 26 opinion becomes final next month.
Stubblefield’s attorneys have sought to secure his release in the wake of the historic appellate decision, arguing that the state no longer has any grounds to keep him incarcerated, and that he should be allowed to remain free while county prosecutors decide whether to re-file charges.
In a motion filed to Ramon earlier this week, the attorneys asserted that the judge has the authority to order that Stubblefield be transferred from Corcoran State Prison — where he has served close to four years of a 15-year sentence — to county jail, and then grant his release on bail. That would effectively return Stubblefield to the same status that he had pretrial, which they argue is his current legal standing.
“With the appellate court’s reversal, Mr. Stubblefield’s presumption of innocence is restored,” defense attorney Ania Williams wrote in the Jan. 14 court filing. “Detaining him without a valid conviction contradicts justice principles.”
At a Jan. 3 court hearing, Ramon said Stubblefield was in local jail custody, but that has since been determined to have been an errant statement, and records confirm that he was and continues to be held in prison custody at Corcoran.
A three-judge appellate panel ruled that Stubblefield’s conviction was “legally invalid” after finding that the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office violated the Racial Justice Act when a prosecutor 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 appellate ruling concluded that because of this decision, 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 then rape a woman who had come to his Morgan Hill home to interview for a babysitting job in 2015.
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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.
At trial, Doe testified that after she and Stubblefield finished an initial interview and she left his house, he texted her, saying he wanted to pay her for traveling from Hollister. Doe had said that when she returned, he gave her $80, then locked the front door and carried her into a first-floor bedroom and assaulted her. Stubblefield’s attorneys disputed Doe’s account and argued that the reason she returned to the home was to collect money for paid sex.
The Racial Justice Act of 2020, authored by state Assemblymember Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, went into effect in 2021 and makes it illegal to obtain a conviction “on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin.” The law allows legal challenges to charges, convictions and sentences found to have been influenced by systemic bias. The appellate ruling for Stubblefield marked the first major case reversal in Santa Clara County under the law.
Staff writer Caelyn Pender contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
