Danny Masterson has been in prison since December 2023, serving the first of a 30-year sentence after being convicted of two counts of rape. However, his fight hasn’t ended, as his legal team continues to try to clear the That ‘70s Show star’s name after multiple sexual assault accusations. Alleging that his 2023 trial was “rife with erroneous judicial rulings,” Masterson’s lawyer has filed to appeal the convictions.
On December 18, Danny Masterson’s lawyer Cliff Gardner shared a 246-page opening brief, US Weekly reports, that cites a number of errors that may have violated Masterson’s “rights to confrontation and a fair trial.” The appeal is reportedly based on “two fundamental flaws” in the actor’s convictions. According to the documents:
The trial was rife with erroneous judicial rulings that skewed the jury’s view of the evidence against him. [Secondly,] there was a stunning amount of exculpatory evidence which was never presented to the jury.
The defense’s complaints about Danny Masterson’s trial began immediately after his conviction in September 2023, as his attorney said at the time that some of “the top appellate lawyers in the country” had already “identified a number of significant evidentiary and constitutional issues.”
Cliff Gardner echoed those sentiments and continued to show confidence in getting the convictions overturned. The lawyer stated:
The appeal represents only one part of Danny’s challenge to his convictions. Danny’s habeas lawyer will be following up on the opening brief with a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus documenting additional defects in the trial process. Stay tuned as we work toward Danny’s complete exoneration.
The actor, whose career effectively ended when he was fired from The Ranch in 2017 following the rape accusations, was sentenced to 30 years in prison and is not eligible for parole until June 2042, when the actor — who turned 48 in prison this year — will be 66 years old.
The sentencing came after a yearslong investigation into allegations from five women that Danny Masterson assaulted them in the early 2000s. The actor has maintained his innocence, and his That ‘70s Show co-stars Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis have faced backlash for writing character letters in support of Masterson ahead of his sentencing.
The Men at Work actor was first brought to trial in October 2022. Proceedings lasted nearly a month before jury deliberations began, but that ended in a mistrial when two jurors tested positive for COVID and the pool members remained deadlocked. The second trial began in April 2023 and featured harrowing testimony from Danny Masterson’s accusers.
In January 2024, a judge denied a request to release the actor on bond as his legal team worked on his appeal. She said that with “no wife to go home to” after Bijou Phillips filed for divorce, coupled with the length of his sentence, Danny Masterson had “every incentive to flee and little reason to return to state prison to serve out the remainder of his lengthy sentence should his appeal be unsuccessful.” Now that paperwork has been filed, we’ll have to see if the defense’s findings change the trial’s outcome in any way.
