Division Two of California's Second District Court of Appeal affirmed Danny Masterson's two forcible-rape convictions and his 30-years-to-life sentence.

Tuesday's order leaves the 2023 convictions and the 30-years-to-life sentence in place. It is an affirmance, and the opinion is marked not for publication. A request for Supreme Court review, which the lawyers said they will file, is the next step. It does not itself undo the judgment.

The opinion filed Oct. 27, 2026, is from Division Two of the Second Appellate District, case B333069, on a judgment of the Los Angeles County Superior Court. It states that Daniel Peter Masterson was convicted of two counts of forcible rape under Penal Code section 261, subdivision (a)(2), that the jury found true an allegation he committed the offense against more than one person, and that the court sentenced him to consecutive terms of 15 years to life, a total of 30 years to life. Acting Presiding Justice Chavez wrote the opinion. Justices Richardson and Goorvitch concurred. The last line affirms the judgment. The caption says the opinion is not certified for publication under California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115. NBC News published the Associated Press account the same day. That account calls the ruling 89 pages and says the three-judge panel was unanimous. CBC News, posted Oct. 28, also calls it an 89-page ruling and says the panel was unanimous.

The Associated Press account, as NBC News published it, says the panel found that Masterson had not shown trial errors that would warrant a new trial, and that it rejected a petition claiming ineffective assistance of counsel. The same account says the court rejected a statute-of-limitations argument because the 10-year limit for forcible rape does not apply where there are multiple victims, a challenge to evidence the trial court excluded, and a claim that the trial court was biased against his religion. CBC News reported that the panel denied a separate habeas corpus petition arguing he did not receive an adequate defense, and that it rejected the statute-of-limitations arguments, the evidentiary arguments, and the claim that the trial judge was biased against Scientology. The opinion says, "Those statements, viewed in context, evidence no animus or departure from neutrality regarding Scientology." It says, "The jury in this case was not asked to determine the truth or falsity of Scientology doctrine or beliefs." It says, "Admission of Scientology evidence for those purposes did not contravene the First Amendment." The opinion's counsel line names Cliff Gardner and Lazuli Whitt for Masterson. CBC News reported the statement on further review from appellate attorneys Cliff Gardner and Eric Multhaup. Gardner appears in both. Whitt and Multhaup do not.

The opinion says the first trial, in 2022, deadlocked on all counts and ended in a mistrial, and that the 2023 jury convicted him on two counts and deadlocked on a third. The Associated Press account says those two convictions were for raping two women at his home in 2003, after the 2022 deadlock, and that the sentence imposed was 30 years to life. CBC News reported the same two 2003 convictions after the hung jury, and reported that the 2023 jury could not reach a verdict on a count involving a third person who alleges she was raped in 2001. The women are not named in this account. The Associated Press account says Masterson is 50, that he has been serving the sentence at the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo, and that he will not be eligible for parole for more than 20 years.

NBC News, publishing the Associated Press, reported that his attorneys said in an emailed statement on Tuesday that they would seek review at the California Supreme Court. CBC News reported that Gardner and Multhaup said they will seek that review and will also pursue a separate petition. A petition for review asks a higher court to hear the case. The Tuesday affirmance is the judgment that stands while that request is made.