- Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court overturned Bill Cosby´s sex assault conviction on Wednesday
- The court found an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case
- Cosby has served more than two years of a three- to 10-year sentence at a state prison near Philadelphia
- The 83-year-old, who was once beloved as ‘America´s Dad,’ was convicted of drugging and molesting the Temple University employee at his suburban estate
- He was charged in late 2015, when a prosecutor armed with newly unsealed evidence arrested him days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired—
By ASSOCIATED PRESS—
Bill Cosby will be released from prison today after Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court overturned his sexual assault conviction.
The actor was two years into a 10 year sentence at a prison near Philadelphia for sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004. He is 83 and many thought he might die in prison.
But on Wednesday, the Supreme Court overturned his conviction, saying that the testimony of five other women at his retrial tainted the jury.
Cosby was first charged in 2015 but a mistrial was declared the first time around when the jury deadlocked. At that trial, only one other accuser was allowed to testify. At his retrial, the five others testified.
It’s unclear whether or not prosecutors plan to pursue a third conviction.
Cosby was the first celebrity brought down by sexual misconduct claims in the #MeToo era.
His case was unique in that multiple women publicly claimed that he’d abused them or harassed them but their allegations fell outside of statute of limitations.
Constand’s claims were the only ones that could legally be prosecuted.
Many of his critics considered it justice for all of his alleged victims when he was jailed for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting Constand.
Cosby had always denied it and he vowed to serve the full ten year sentence rather than anything shorter, because it would have required him to express remorse.
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+Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction Wednesday after finding an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case
In their ruling, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justices voiced concern not just about sex assault cases, but what they saw as the judiciary´s increasing tendency to allow testimony that crosses the line into character attacks. The law allows the testimony only in limited cases, including to show a crime pattern so specific it serves to identify the perpetrator.
In Cosby’s case, one of his appellate lawyers said prosecutors put on vague evidence about the uncharged conduct, including Cosby´s own recollections in his deposition about giving women alcohol or quaaludes before sexual encounters.
‘The presumption of innocence just didn´t exist for him,’ Jennifer Bonjean, the lawyer, argued to the court in December.
In May, Cosby was denied paroled after refusing to participate in sex offender programs during his nearly three years in state prison. He has long said he would resist the treatment programs and refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing even if it means serving the full 10-year sentence.
This is the first year he was eligible for parole under the three- to 10-year sentence handed down after his 2018 conviction.
Cosby spokesperson Andrew Wyatt called the parole board decision ‘appalling.’
Prosecutors said Cosby repeatedly used his fame and ‘family man’ persona to manipulate young women, holding himself out as a mentor before betraying them.
Cosby, a groundbreaking Black actor who grew up in public housing in Philadelphia, made a fortune estimated at $400 million during his 50 years in the entertainment industry. His trademark clean comedy and homespun wisdom fueled popular TV shows, books and standup acts.
He fell from favor in his later years as he lectured the Black community about family values, but was attempting a comeback when he was arrested.
‘There was a built-in level of trust because of his status in the entertainment industry and because he held himself out as a public moralist,’ Assistant District Attorney Adrienne Jappe, of suburban Montgomery County, argued to the justices.
Cosby had invited Constand to an estate he owns in Pennsylvania the night she said he drugged and sexually assaulted her.
Constand, a former professional basketball player who worked at his alma mater, went to police a year later. The other accusers knew Cosby through the entertainment industry and did not go to police.
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