Court Overturns Bill Cosby’s S*x Assault Conviction, Bars Further Prosecution

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned Bill
Cosby’s sex assault conviction, setting the stage for the release
of the 83-year-old comedian later in the day.

The state’s highest court tossed Cosby’s conviction as a result
of an agreement he had with a prior prosecutor that would have
prevented Cosby from being criminally charged in the case. This new
ruling bars any retrial in the case, court documents say.

Cosby is two years into a three-to-10-year prison term.

The supreme court’s opinion also disagreed with the trial court
judge’s decision to let prosecutors call five other accusers in
addition to Andrea Constand, the former Temple University employee
whose allegation was the basis of the criminal case.

Cosby was accused of drugging and molesting Constand at his
estate in 2004. He was charged in 2015 for the alleged attack and
arrested just days before the 12-year statute of limitations
expired.

Originally, the trial judge had allowed just one other accuser
to testify at Cosby’s first trial. However, after the jury
deadlocked, the judge then allowed five other accusers to testify
at Cosby’s retrial.

This testimony tainted the trial, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
said, even though the lower appeals court had found it appropriate
to show a pattern of behavior.

The court ultimately did not address the admissibility of the
five additional accusers because it had overturned the ruling based
on the agreement with a former prosecutor that prevented Cosby from
being criminally charged in the case.

“Having identified a due process violation here, we must
ascertain the remedy to which Cosby is entitled,” the court
document stated.

Cosby, whose role as Dr Cliff Huxtable in 1980s hit sitcom The
Cosby Show made him a national treasure in the US, was convicted of
drugging and molesting Ms Constand, a Temple University employee,
at his suburban estate.

She was one of more than a dozen women who accused Cosby of
misconduct but the only one whose case made it to court.

The trial judge had allowed just one other accuser to testify at
Cosby’s first trial, when the jury deadlocked.

However, he then allowed five other accusers to testify at the
retrial about their experiences with Cosby in the 1980s.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned Bill
Cosby’s sex assault conviction, setting the stage for the release
of the 83-year-old comedian later in the day.

The state’s highest court tossed Cosby’s conviction as a result
of an agreement he had with a prior prosecutor that would have
prevented Cosby from being criminally charged in the case. This new
ruling bars any retrial in the case, court documents say.

Cosby is two years into a three-to-10-year prison term.

The supreme court’s opinion also disagreed with the trial court
judge’s decision to let prosecutors call five other accusers in
addition to Andrea Constand, the former Temple University employee
whose allegation was the basis of the criminal case.

Cosby was accused of drugging and molesting Constand at his
estate in 2004. He was charged in 2015 for the alleged attack and
arrested just days before the 12-year statute of limitations
expired.

Originally, the trial judge had allowed just one other accuser
to testify at Cosby’s first trial. However, after the jury
deadlocked, the judge then allowed five other accusers to testify
at Cosby’s retrial.

This testimony tainted the trial, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
said, even though the lower appeals court had found it appropriate
to show a pattern of behavior.

The court ultimately did not address the admissibility of the
five additional accusers because it had overturned the ruling based
on the agreement with a former prosecutor that prevented Cosby from
being criminally charged in the case.

“Having identified a due process violation here, we must
ascertain the remedy to which Cosby is entitled,” the court
document stated.

Cosby, whose role as Dr Cliff Huxtable in 1980s hit sitcom The
Cosby Show made him a national treasure in the US, was convicted of
drugging and molesting Ms Constand, a Temple University employee,
at his suburban estate.

She was one of more than a dozen women who accused Cosby of
misconduct but the only one whose case made it to court.

The trial judge had allowed just one other accuser to testify at
Cosby’s first trial, when the jury deadlocked.

However, he then allowed five other accusers to testify at the
retrial about their experiences with Cosby in the 1980s.