More than a year after being convicted on two charges of rape, and subsequently being sentenced to 30 years to life in prison, actor Danny Masterson has reportedly filed an appeal. This is per Page Six, which received the 246-page document, filed Wednesday evening, from Masterson’s attorney, Cliff Gardner.
In a statement to press, Gardner claimed that the appeal is focused on two claims: That the judge in the original case made several errors “that skewed the jury’s view of the evidence against” Masterson, and that “a stunning amount of exculpatory evidence” was withheld from the jury. Said jury ultimately found Masterson guilty on two of the charges of rape he was being tried on, which dated back to incidents that occurred in 2003; a third charge resulted in a hung jury and was dismissed. (The trial in question was Masterson’s second on these charges, a previous one having been declared a mistrial.) In later sentencing, Masterson was given 15 years to life on each of his convictions. Gardner also said Masterson’s legal team will be filing “a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus documenting additional defects in the trial process.”
Masterson is currently incarcerated at California’s Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo.