Daniel Holtzclaw, the disgraced Oklahoma City police officer convicted of raping several women in 2016, is taking his case to the Supreme Court.
An attorney for Holtzclaw filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court last month, seeking a “review of the unjust and unconstitutional ruling against him issued by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA) in August 2019,” KOCO News 5 reported.
The former cop had previously appealed his 18 convictions and 263-year prison sentence, but was denied.
Holtzclaw, 32, faced numerous charges including rape and sexual battery involving eight women. Thirteen in all came forward to accuse the then–officer of assaulting them while he was on duty. His victims ranged from a 17-year-old girl raped on her front porch to a 57-year-old grandmother of 12.
“Ever since this happened my life has been upside down,” one of the victims said before Holtzclaw’s sentencing in 2016. “I feel like I’m dying on the inside.”
Holtzclaw has maintained his innocence in the case and in 2016 said he was confident he’d be granted a new trial.
“I’m very confident in my appellate lawyers, I’m confident in my team and the support that I have,” he told local outlet News 4 at the time. “I am very blessed to have that. I’m confident that all the discovery we have found throughout the trial, I’m pretty positive I’m going to get a retrial.”
Holtzclaw’s defense challenged the evidence prosecutors used to convict him, arguing the DNA found on the officer’s clothes and pants zipper may have gotten there through non-sexual contact. They also argued that the “circus atmosphere” surrounding the trial might affect its outcome.
A judge disagreed.
His attorney, James Hankins, said this latest petition to the Supreme Court will focus on key legal questions regarding “prosecutorial misrepresentation of scientific evidence at trial” and “improper joinder” of 13 accusers en masse alleging disparate crimes spanning 36 charges.
“Lumping them all together created ‘a self-corroborating cascade of testimony’ that ‘reinforced its own credibility through volume,’” Hankins said in a news release. “Holtzclaw ‘prays respectfully’ that the court will ‘review the judgment’ of the OCCA.”
Watch more in the video below.
