- Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is asking a judge to grant her a new trial or reduce her prison sentence.
- Holmes’ lawyers say she was unjustly prevented from citing “irrefutable evidence” of her innocence.
- She is currently set to start serving her 11-year prison sentence next week.
Elizabeth Holmes Truly believed in his company’s blood-testing technology and was unfairly barred from submitting “compelling evidence” that would have bolstered his defense, lawyers for the former Theranos CEO said in a court filing on Monday, claiming that She deserved either a new trial or a reduced sentence.
In 2018, Holmes and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwanithe former president of Theranos and his ex-boyfriend, have been accused with multiple counts of wire fraud and accused of defrauding investors who backed the company and what it touted as a revolutionary new way to quickly and accurately test a small blood sample.
Holmes was sentenced on four points and sentenced last November to 11.25 years in prison, with three years of state supervision after his release.
Holmes, 39, is is due to begin his sentence on April 27 after a judge last week denied her request to remain free while she appeals her conviction. As her punishment was handed down, Holmes told the court, through tears, that she was ‘devastated by my failures’ and ‘felt deep pain for what people went through because I let them down. “.
But in the brief filed Monday with the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, attorneys for Holmes say his original trial was flawed, producing an “unfair” conviction and a “severe” jail sentence. They argue that she was unjustly prevented from citing Balwani’s testimony in her own defense.
“Balwani’s testimony is compelling evidence supporting Holmes’ defense that she did not intend to defraud investors with the financial projections or conspire with Balwani to do so,” the attorneys wrote. Balwani was sentenced out of 12 points and sentenced last december to 13 years in prison.
Holmes’ defense team also argued that testimony of former Theranos lab director Dr. Adam Rosendorff – that the company’s technology was “uniquely problematic” – improperly swayed the court, citing the fact that Rosendorff was not cross-examined and questioned about the shortcomings of the other laboratories in which he worked.
For these reasons, the court “should set aside the conviction and remand for a new trial or, alternatively, the remand for a new conviction,” Holmes’ lawyers wrote.
Holmes has made several attempts to overturn his conviction or to delay or reduce his sentence over the past year. In May, his lawyers asked the judge to overturn his conviction, saying there was “insufficient evidence” for any “rational juror”. In November, after the judge refused three requests she did a new trial a few days before her sentencing, she asked for 18 months of house arrest instead of a prison sentence, her lawyers claiming that she had been “mocked and vilified enough”.