Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court has vacated Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction, ordering his immediate release from prison due to a technicality stemming from the charges that landed him in prison in the first place. The state found that a 2005 agreement with a previous prosecutor had prevented him from being charged for allegedly drugging and raping accuser Andrea Constand back in 2004. They allege that Cosby was thereby denied a fair trial. The ruling reportedly bars any retrial in the case as well.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Justice David N. Wecht, writing for the majority, said Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele was legally bound by that decade-old promise and therefore should not have brought charges when new evidence surfaced in 2015.”
Wecht said vacating the conviction, “is the only remedy that comports with society’s reasonable expectations of its elected prosecutors and our criminal justice system.”
“Work is underway to complete the necessary paperwork,” said Maria Bivens, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. “Mr. Cosby will be released as soon as practical.”
Back in 2014, a video of Hannibal Buress performing a joke onstage about Cosby that quickly went viral, bringing the 10 year-old rape allegations back in the spotlight. As more women stepped forward, various university scholarships and even Netflix and NBC – where he had deals in place – had severed ties with Cosby before he was found guilty of rape in 2019 after an initial mistrial.
Though convicted in the court of law, Cosby has remained steadfast in his innocence, even resisting plea deals and early release from jail (due to his health) because they would require him to admit guilt.
