MOBILE, Ala. (WRBL) – A Mobile man was convicted of first-degree rape and sodomy in Mobile County Circuit Court on December 12, 2020.

Frederick Antoine Tate, 45, sought to appeal this conviction. Attorney General Steve Marshall announced that the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the initial conviction of Frederick Antoine Tate on August 27, 2021.

The evidence at trial showed that on December 20, 1997, the victim was walking home from work when Tate approached the woman to ask personal questions. Tate told her that he had a gun and would shoot her unless she engaged in sexual relations with him.

Auburn University student reports stranger fondled her on campus

Several years later, an analysis of the victim’s rape kit confirmed 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 along with the subsequent retrial, and secured 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.