It seems Josh Duggar may have finally hit the end of the road where his legal battle is concerned. On Monday, a federal appeals court denied Josh’s appeal, meaning that his conviction of possessing and receiving child sexual assault material will be upheld. So what happens next?
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Josh's lawyer made it clear he'd be appealing his client's conviction at the end of his trial.
Though Josh has been serving time since his trial ended in late 2021, in October 2022, Josh and his lawyers filed a 64-page appeal brief. It quickly became obvious that this was going to be an uphill battle for the former reality star; the US attorneys’ response to the brief claimed that the filing “lacked merit.”
Now, Josh has his answer.
Though Josh’s lawyers argued that the court and investigators working on the case made mistakes such as “[violating] his right to counsel” and “[suppressing] incriminating statements,” ultimately, the appeals court ruled that Josh will not get another trial.
“The district court did not err in admitting into evidence defendant’s statements as a reasonable person in defendant’s position would not have believed he was in custody at the time the statements were made to police,” the ruling stated, according to CNN.
The court also shut down Josh's argument that he was unable to present a 'complete defense.'
Josh and his lawyers thought that the fact that they were unable to mention a former employee at Josh’s car lot had a prior sex-offense conviction was unfair, but the appeals panel said that has nothing to do with the outcome of the case.
“Duggar, for his part, tried to point the finger elsewhere. Looking to convince the jury that it faced ‘a classic, old-fashioned ‘whodunit,’ he suggested that a former employee, who happened to be a convicted sex offender, was to blame. Duggar ultimately decided not to call him to the stand, however, because the district court ruled that any mention of the employee’s prior conviction was off-limits,” read the ruling, according to CNN.
Both Josh and his wife, Anna, have maintained his innocence.
Not long after Josh’s conviction, Anna shared a link to his appeal filing on Instagram, writing, “there is more to the story,” on her since-deleted Instagram account — and it appeared she and Josh were on the same page at that time, though it’s unclear if anything has changed in their relationship since then after nearly two years of separation as Josh serves out his sentence.
Right now, he is set to be released in October 2032.
Josh will have to continue serving his prison sentence.
He is in a federal prison facility in Seagoville, Texas, where — as far as we know, anyway — Anna and their seven children visit often, even though they still seem to be based in Arkansas.
After this blow to his case, it looks like he should start getting comfy if he hasn’t already …
