Tyson Appeals Arguments to Be Heard Today

Mike Tyson’s appeals lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, will argue today in Indianapolis that his client should get a new trial because Judge Patricia J. Gifford blocked testimony from witnesses challenging the truthfulness of the woman who accused him of rape.

Tyson, 26, was convicted Feb. 10, 1992, and later sentenced to six years in prison after beauty contestant Desiree Washington told jurors he raped her six months earlier in his Indianapolis hotel room.

“After all this is talked about, people are now up in the air about what went on in that room,” says Dershowitz. “We want a new trial. In a new trial, Mike Tyson would be acquitted.”

Written appeals arguments were filed earlier with the Indiana Court of Appeals. They will be heard by a three-judge panel. A decision will be made in four to eight weeks.