Appeals court grants Tyson hearing on legal point

Jet, Jan 10, 1994

The Indiana Court of Appeals has granted boxer Mike Tyson a hearing on a legal point in his conviction for rape.

The hearing, which was not immediately scheduled, will allow Tyson to argue his claim that prosecutors knew that the woman who accused him of rape also was considering suing him.

Tyson's lawyers have claimed that Desiree Washington invented the rape story to get rich off the former heavyweight champion.

Tyson was convicted in February 1992 of raping Washington, a contestant in the Miss Black America Pageant, in a downtown hotel room the summer before.

In August, the Appeals Court turned down a Tyson plea to reverse the conviction. The law allows him a second round of appeals, though, and that's where Tyson won the hearing.

Tyson is serving a six-year sentence at the Indiana Youth Center in Plainfield, IN.