Judge: Cory Batey won't be resentenced in Vanderbilt rape case

A Nashville judge has denied prosecutors' request to resentence former Vanderbilt University football player Cory Batey.

Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins issued his three-page ruling on Friday saying he was not biased and handed down a legal sentence.

Prosecutors on Aug. 15 filed a motion asking for a new sentencing for Batey, saying they were not aware that 11 people had sent letters in support of Batey directly to the judge. Those letters came from Batey's former classmates and teammates as well as teachers and family friends.

Read about those letters here.

Watkins said Tennessee law allows for those letters to be submitted and notes they were in the public case file, where anyone could have seen them. Such letters are routinely sent on behalf of defendants in criminal cases. Watkins also denied the prosecutors' request that he take himself off the case.

"The Court believes it can be fair and impartial and that a reasonable person of ordinary prudence in the judge's position knowing all the facts known would find no partiality," Watkins wrote. "The Court harbors no bias for or against the parties in this case."

Judge delays ruling on new sentencing in Vanderbilt rape case

Batey's lawyer, Peter Strianse, has argued the state's motion was merely an attempt to get a better sentence and that they should take the matter to an appeals court. Watkins sentenced Batey to 15 years, the minimum allowed under Tennessee law, on July 15.

Batey and Brandon Vandenburg were found guilty in separate trials this year in the gang rape of an unconscious woman in a Vanderbilt dorm in June 2013. Vandenburg, 23, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 30.

Two others, Brandon E. Banks and Jaborian "Tip" McKenzie, also are charged and their cases are pending.

Reach Stacey Barchenger at 615-726-8968 and on Twitter @sbarchenger.