Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 7, 1993 TAG: 9308070070
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS LENGTH: Medium
"He's angry," said the Rev. Charles Williams, a confidant who talked with Tyson by telephone. "He feels and knows in his heart that he was innocent, and he knows that he did not get a fair trial."
The Indiana Court of Appeals panel upheld the conviction and six-year sentence in a 2-1 decision that rejected several defense arguments.
On a key issue, the judges ruled the trial court acted within its authority in blocking the testimony of three defense witnesses who would have contradicted Desiree Washington, the Miss Black America pageant contestant who brought the rape complaint against Tyson in 1991.
In the 72-page decision, the majority also ruled the court rightly kept jurors from hearing testimony about Washington's sexual past and evidence the defense claimed would show Washington had a "powerful and secret motive" to lie that she had been raped. The evidence, never disclosed, involved incidents between Washington and her parents, Tyson's lawyers claimed. But the defense lawyers failed to question her parents on the issue and so waived the right to appeal it, the appeals court ruled.
Voting to uphold the conviction were judges V. Sue Shields and Jonathan Robertson. Judge Patrick Sullivan dissented. In his dissent, Sullivan said the defense's delay did not violate court requirements that both sides disclose their witnesses.
"My review of the entire record in the cause leads me to the inescapable conclusion that he did not receive the requisite fairness, which is essential to our system of criminal justice," Sullivan wrote.
Tyson's appeals attorney, Alan Dershowitz, said he would seek an immediate appeal.
Tyson, now 27, was convicted in February 1992 of attacking Washington in July 1991 in his hotel room. He was sentenced to six years in prison, followed by four years' probation. He has served 17 months of his sentence at the Indiana Youth Center. The earliest he could be released from prison if his conviction is upheld is May 9, 1995, prison officials said.
by CNB