High court won't review decision freeing Cosby from prison
Last edited Mon Mar 7, 2022, 02:13 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: AP
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday without comment that it would not review Bill Cosby’s sexual assault case, leaving him a free man and ending a two-decade legal drama that shifted the cultural landscape, destroyed the groundbreaking Black actor’s reputation, and sent him to prison for several years in his late 70s.
The high court — whose nine members include two men accused of sexual misconduct themselves — declined to review a stunning decision out of Pennsylvania that released Cosby from prison in June over the word of a former prosecutor who said he had made a secret promise with Cosby’s lawyers that he could never be charged.
A Cosby spokesperson expressed “sincere gratitude to the justices” on behalf of Cosby and his family for the announcement and said he was the victim of “a reprehensible bait and switch” by the prosecutor and trial judge in the case.
“This is truly a victory for Mr. Cosby, but it shows that cheating will never get you far in life, and the corruption that lies within Montgomery County District’s Attorney Office has been brought to the center stage of the world,” spokesperson Andrew Wyatt said.
FILE - This June 30, 2021, file photo shows Bill Cosby gesturing outside his home in Elkins Park, Pa., after being released from prison. The Supreme Court said Monday, March, 7, 2022, it will not take up the sexual assault case against Cosby, leaving in place a decision by Pennsylvania's highest court to throw out his conviction and set him free from prison. The high court declined prosecutors' request to hear the case and reinstate Cosby's conviction. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year threw out Cosby's conviction, saying the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor's agreement not to charge Cosby. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
Updated story above. Original post: High court won't review decision freeing Cosby from prison
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Monday it will not take up the sexual assault case against comedian Bill Cosby, leaving in place a decision by Pennsylvania’s highest court to throw out his conviction and set him free from prison.
The high court declined prosecutors’ request to hear the case and reinstate Cosby’s conviction. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year threw out Cosby’s conviction, saying the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor’s agreement not to charge Cosby.
As is typical, the Supreme Court did not say anything in rejecting the case. The case was included in a long list of cases the court said Monday it would not hear.
The 84-year-old Cosby became the first celebrity convicted of sexual assault in the #MeToo era when a jury in 2018 found him guilty of drugging and molesting Temple University employee Andrea Constand in 2004. A jury had previously deadlocked in Cosby’s case, resulting in a mistrial in 2017.
FILE - People stand on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, Feb.11, 2022, in Washington. The Supreme Court has reinstated the death sentence for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The justices, by a 6-3 vote Friday, agreed with the Biden administration’s arguments that a federal appeals court was wrong to throw out the sentence of death a jury imposed on Tsarnaev for his role in the bombing. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/bill-cosby-supreme-court-fcee33c9b309e0e5253b76a18e8325ac
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more than 60 women have claimed that he drugged and assaulted them.
Surprised he wasn't in a wheelchair with oxygen.
