Darren Sharper Wants Sentence Reduced Because He Didn’t Know Consequences Of Drugging And Raping Women

Convicted serial rapist and former NFL safety Darren Sharper was sentenced to 18 years in prison back in 2016 for drugging and rapping as many as 16 women in four different states.

Now Sharper is claiming he didn’t fully understand the terms and consequences of his plea deal and wants a reduction in his sentence because of it.

Via NOLA.com:

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“Sharper’s lawyers filed a 52-page memorandum this week in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, arguing he was not adequately advised by his trial lawyers on the consequences of his 2016 guilty plea. That plea came after a judge rejected a nine-year sentence that was called for in his initial plea deal.

The plea deal originally sentenced Sharper to a nine-year federal prison term, but U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo rejected the deal in February 2016. Under the second plea agreement, Sharper was sent to jail for 18 years and expected to cooperate with the federal investigation involving his accomplices, Brandon Licciardi and Erik Nunez, who pleaded guilty to charges related to the New Orleans attacks.

The second agreement conforms with federal sentencing guidelines that recommend 188 to 235 months for the drug conspiracy and distribution violations to which he admitted guilt.

The new memorandum argues that Sharper was misled into accepting the second plea deal and pleaded guilty without “knowing fully what rights he was losing or what consequences he was facing” due to ineffective trial counsel. Defense attorney Billy Gibbens represented Sharper in the agreements. Gibbens did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”

This is the second time Sharper has attempted to appeal the sentencing, with the first one getting dismissed in 2017 by a federal appeals court.