Brock Turner, who last year was found guilty of sexual assault and served a three-month sentence, is appealing his conviction.
The former Stanford University swimmer was arrested in 2015, aged 19, after he was seen on top of an unconscious woman outside a fraternity house during party.
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His sentence sparked global outrage after he was charged with only six months' jail time for sexual assault, before being released after only serving half his sentence.
Turner was convicted of sexual assault of an unconscious person, sexual assault of an intoxicated person and sexual assault with intent to commit rape. Throughout his original trial, Turner's legal team insisted the sexual encounter was consensual.
"What we are saying [is] that what happened is not a crime," one of Turner's legal advisers, John Tompkins, told local media on Friday. "It happened, but it was not anywhere close to a crime."
According to the New York Times, Turner's lawyer, Eric Multhaup, filed papers on Friday (local time) stating Turner did not get a fair trial, and the initial trial was "a detailed and lengthy set of lies".
Mr Multhaup argued a prosecutor in the trial incorrectly told jurors the sexual assault occurred behind a rubbish skip, or dumpster.
The appeal said the use of the term dumpster "implied moral depravity, callousness and culpability on the appellant's part because of the inherent connotations of filth, garbage, detritus and criminal activity frequently generally associated with dumpsters".
Around 60 pages of the appeal reportedly focus heavily on how intoxicated the victim was on the night of the attack.
As part of his sentence, Turner is forced to register as a sex offender every 90 days for the rest of his life. His legal team are hoping to overturn that in the new trial.
Newshub.
