Danny Masterson Loses Rape Conviction Appeal, Judges Uphold 30-Year Prison Sentence

An appeals court has denied Danny Masterson‘s appeal of his 2023 conviction on rape charges, upholding the verdict and his 30-year prison sentence.

via: The Wrap

According to the 89-page ruling obtained by TheWrap Tuesday, a three-judge panel rejected each of Masterson’s arguments for appeal. The decision means his 30-year prison sentence for the charges will stand. Masterson was accused by three women of raping them at his Hollywood Hills home around 2003. A 2022 trial resulted in a hung jury on all three counts, but a 2023 retrial resulted in convictions on two, while the panel deadlocked on a third count.

Masterson’s lawyer Cliff Gardner picked apart the timeline of the accusers’ stories in exhausting detail, outlining how each “evolved” their memories over the years more than a half-dozen times. He suggested that they tailored their accounts knowing that a criminal conviction would open the long-expired limitations statutes preventing them from seeking a significant financial reward – and that the trial court improperly stopped him from making that argument to the juries.

Gardner pointed out that the initial mistrial and split verdict at retrial – with “protracted jury deliberations at both” – showed that jurors already had reservations about the credibility of the witnesses, despite the critical omission of their possible motives.

This didn’t stand up to the judges in the appeal process.

The former “That ’70s Show” star also filed an appeal that argued his defense attorney failed to call witnesses who could have discredited his accusers and pushed back on prosecution claims that Scientology strived to silence them.

The petition for habeas corpus also said Masterson’s lawyer, Philip Cohen, failed to “present any of an unparalleled trove of evidence” that would have undermined his accusers’ credibility. The filing added Masterson implored Cohen to call rebuttal witnesses, but he refused, relying instead on cross-examination of prosecution testimony.

The three-judge panel also rejected the habeas corpus petition and arguments about the statute of limitations.