Conviction of Ex 49er, Dana Stubblefield Overturned Thansk to Stockton/Sacramento Attorneys

The Stockton/Sacramento based attorneys Allen Sawyer and Kenneth Rosenfeld were able to get the rape conviction of former San Francisco 49er star, Dana Stubblefield, thrown out the day after Christmas. The conviction was overturned by the Santa Clara County 6th District Court of Appeals. 

Stubblefield, who played defensive lineman for both the 49ers and the Oakland Raiders and was the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1997, was convicted of rape by force, oral copulation by force, and false imprisonment of a 34-year-old disabled woman at gunpoint in July 2020. The crime allegedly occurred in 2015 at his home in Morgan Hill. 

He began his 15 years to life sentence in October 2020. His attorneys immediately filed an appeal, predicting his name would eventually be cleared. 

Stockton based attorney Allen Sawyer stated that the jury never got all the information and evidence in the case and that the prosecutors created racial undertones. 

In a statement provided to 209 Times Sawyer stated, "There were definitely racial undertones. I believe it was racial animus that triggered the horrible rulings. Everything was consensual and the alleged victim was a pay for sex worker, which is how Mr. Stubblefield was in contact with her. The jury was never allowed to hear about any of this. This was withheld from the jurors to make them believe that he raped a babysitter. It doesn’t change the fact that she was actually a sex worker and we had the concrete evidence including her confession when we confronted her with it, and she was interviewed by law-enforcement We knew if the jury had all of this info they would have come to a different verdict. The appellate court apparently agreed.” 

His partner on the defense, Sacramento based attorney Kenneth Rosenfeld said, “we will be asking for our client’s released from prison as soon as next week.”

The Santa Clara County District Attorney  still has the option to prosecute in a retrial, but has yet made a decision.

Stubblefield played with the 49ers for 11 seasons, starting out as the Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1993 and winning Super Bowl XXIX in 1995 against the Stockton Cabal owned San Diego Chargers. He retired like other prominent 49er legends, playing his last season as a Raider in Oakland in 2003.