Danny Masterson Says His 30-Years-To-Life Sentence Should Be Overturned Because His Religious Rights Were Violated at Trial
by Chrissy Stockton · Thought CatalogUpdated 4 minutes ago, August 26, 2026
Danny Masterson wants his conviction thrown out, and his appeal rests on a single decision made in the courtroom: the trial judge chose to interpret Scientology scripture for the jury herself. That, his lawyers argue, was a step no judge should have taken — and one that tainted everything the jury heard afterward. The former That ’70s Show star is currently serving 30 years to life for assaulting two women who were fellow members of the Church of Scientology.
The Church of Scientology International filed an amicus brief supporting Masterson’s appeal. The court initially rejected an earlier filing, but accepted a revised 70-page brief in June 2026. The brief directly argues that Masterson’s conviction was tainted by First Amendment violations involving Scientology.
At his 2023 retrial, the prosecution introduced evidence about Scientology’s teachings and practices, because the three women who accused Masterson were Scientologists and said their religion affected their decisions about reporting the alleged assaults.
Masterson’s attorney, Cliff Gardner, filed a 26-page brief arguing that the trial judge announced “that she would personally interpret a portion of Scientology scripture herself,” then rejected the Church’s reading of that scripture in favor of the version offered by prosecutors.
That decision, Gardner wrote, “violated the First Amendment.” According to the brief, jurors were effectively told they could accept the Scientology evidence as true — meaning they were invited to believe that the Church “did not recognize” assault, that it punished members who reported crimes, and that it “required its members to follow the law of Scientology rather than laws of the United States.” The defense argues that framing didn’t just color the jury’s view of the Church; it colored their view of Masterson himself.
Gardner also claims the judge went further, making hostile comments about Masterson’s faith and describing the alleged assaults as “an organizational crime” — language that, the appeal says, implied the Church itself was somehow complicit in what happened. For the defense, those remarks are evidence that the religion, rather than the individual, wound up on trial.
The road to Masterson’s conviction was not a straight one. The actor, now 50, was tried twice. The first trial ended in a mistrial after jurors couldn’t reach a verdict. The second convicted him of assaulting two women, while the jury deadlocked on a charge involving a third accuser. All three women were members of the Church of Scientology, a detail that has run through the case from the beginning and now sits at the center of the appeal.
The fallout from the case reached beyond the courtroom. Masterson’s now ex-wife, actress Bijou Phillips, filed for divorce in the immediate aftermath of his 2023 sentencing. Throughout the trials and since, Masterson has maintained that the encounters were consensual even though a gun was used during one of the attacks. News of the divorce filing was first reported by journalist Tony Ortega’s Scientology-focused outlet, The Underground Bunker.
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