A San Jose judge granted former San Francisco 49ers player Dana Stubblefield release from prison on Friday.
In 2020, the defensive tackle was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for raping a woman who was interviewing for a babysitting job at his Morgan Hill home.
But in December of last year, an appellate court reversed that conviction.
The court ruled that Stubblefield did not get a fair trial because prosecutors violated the state's Racial Justice Act, making racially biased comments about him being Black.
Friday's ruling granted Stubblefield his freedom, while authorities decide whether to re-file charges against him.
"We remain focused on the sexual assault that occurred, the victim and the need for accountability and community safety," Santa Clara County Assistant District Attorney Terry Harman said in response to the decision.
Kenneth Rosenfeld, Stubblefield's defense attorney, released the following statement on Friday:
“Finally, an innocent man is no longer sitting in a cage away from his family. The Court of Appeals issued a forceful, unanimous ruling proving bias in Dana’s case. And their ruling was only the tip of the iceberg – the entire trial was infected with error and bias from the start. This was a consensual, transactional encounter, and Dana lost years of his life due to a flagrantly biased trial that blocked critical evidence and allowed prejudice and racial bias into the courtroom. We have more work to bring this to closure, but, step by step, we are seeing justice finally being done.”
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