Pennsylvania’s highest court on Wednesday overturned a sexual assault conviction against American comedian Bill Cosby and ordered his immediate release from prison, ruling that he should never have faced charges after reaching a court settlement with a previous district attorney more than ago. 15 years.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision comes after Cosby served more than two years of a potential sentence of three to 10 years in state prison, following his conviction in 2018.
The 83-year-old comedian and actor was known for his role as the lovable husband and father in the 1980s television comedy “The Cosby Show,” earning him the nickname “The Cosby Show.” Father of the United States “.
But his reputation as a family man was shattered when dozens of women accused him of sexual abuse over a period of decades.
His conviction was widely seen as a watershed moment in the #MeToo movement, which prompted a series of indictments against powerful men in Hollywood and elsewhere.
The actor was released Wednesday afternoon from a state correctional facility in Shippack, Pennsylvania.
Cosby was found guilty of sexually abusing Andrea Constand, a Temple University employee, at her home in 2014 after drugging her with unidentified pills. The woman’s allegations were the only ones against the actor that weren’t too old to admit criminal charges.
The majority of the court found that a state attorney, Bruce Castor, had reached an agreement with Cosby’s attorneys in 2005 not to press criminal charges.
As a result, Cosby was unable to avoid testifying as part of a civil lawsuit Constand filed against him, as defendants can only refuse to testify when facing criminal prosecution.
His sworn statement, which a judge revealed in 2015, eventually led a new district attorney, Kevin Steele, to convict Cosby later that year, just before the criminal statute of limitations expired.
That prosecution, the court found, essentially amounted to breaching Castor’s prior promise not to charge Cosby.
“In light of those circumstances, the successor DAs’ subsequent decision to prosecute Cosby violated Cosby’s rights to due process,” Judge David Wecht wrote on behalf of the majority.
“There is only one remedy that can fully restore Cosby to the status quo. He must be released and any future prosecution for these particular charges must be prohibited,” he concluded.
A dissenting judge said Cosby should remain in prison, while two others felt it was wrong to prohibit prosecutors from trying him again, albeit without relying on tainted evidence.
“Such a drastic step simply increases the interference with the public interest of bringing the guilty to justice to an intolerable degree,” wrote Associate Justice Kevin Dougherty.
