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Bill Cosby’s Sexual Assault Conviction Overturned
Cosby served two years of a three-to-10-year sentence at a state prison near his home in Philadelphia.
In a surprise move on Wednesday June 30, 2021, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in a split decision written by Justice David Wecht, overturned Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction from 2015.
Additionally, further prosecution is barred.
Cosby served two years of a three-to-10-year sentence at a state prison near his home in Philadelphia.
The original conviction stemmed from a 2004 encounter with accuser Andrea Constand.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court found that the prosecutor, District Attorney Kevin Steele, who had Cosby arrested days before the statue of limitations expired, failed to uphold an oral obligation by Bruce Castor, his predecessor, not to charge Cosby when he gave potentially incriminating testimony (he acknowledged giving women quaalude’s for sex) in Constand’s civil lawsuit.
Additionally, the other basis for overturning the conviction was the trial judge’s allowing the prosecutors to call 5 other accusers during the trial.
Phylicia Rashad said “Finally!! A terrible wrong is being righted—a miscarriage of justice is corrected.”
#MeToo movement advocates point out that the testimony of wrongdoing by Cosby still stands in the civil trial and a total of 40 women came forward to accuse him of drugging them and sexual molestation.
Cosby was released from prison shortly after 2pm ET on Wednesday, June 30.
AP, CNN, The New York Post, The New York Times, and TMZ were sources for this report.
