FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 10, 2021
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Attorney General Steve Marshall Announces Court of Criminal Appeals Upholds Rape, Sodomy Convictions in Mobile County
(MONTGOMERY) – Attorney General Steve Marshall announced that the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction of Frederick Antoine Tate, 45, for first-degree rape and sodomy. Tate was convicted in Mobile County Circuit Court on December 12, 2020.
The evidence at trial showed that on December 20, 1997, the victim was walking home from her job at a local restaurant when a man who she had never met before came up and began asking very personal questions. The man told her that he had a gun and would shoot her unless she engaged in sexual relations with him. Several years later an analysis of the rape kit that was used in the victim’s case revealed that it was Frederick Tate’s DNA. The jury was unable to reach a verdict during Tate’s first trial, and he was found guilty by the jury in his second trial.
Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich’s office successfully prosecuted this case and the subsequent retrial, and obtained the guilty verdicts. Tate was sentenced to 22 years imprisonment for both the rape and sodomy convictions. Tate sought to have his convictions reversed on appeal.
The Attorney General’s Criminal Appeals Division handled the case during the appeals process, arguing for the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to affirm Tate’s convictions. The Court did so in a decision issued August 27.
Attorney General Marshall commended Assistant Attorney General Sara Rogan for her successful work on this case, and thanked District Attorney Ashley Rich and her staff for their valuable assistance in defending the rape and sodomy convictions.
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