Mixed reactions to ruling overturning Bill Cosby’s conviction
NEW YORK, United States (AP) — There was mixed reaction to yesterday’s news that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had overturned Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction and cleared the way for him to be released from prison.
“Mr Cosby should never have been prosecuted for these offences. District attorneys can’t change it up simply because of their political motivation,” Cosby appellate lawyer Jennifer Bonjean said in an interview.
“When you look at what happened, the fact that a jury reached a conclusion after a trial where they heard evidence, there was nothing about the opinion today that detracted from that. I think that’s important for people like Andrea and other women who came forward,” said Stewart Ryan, who was a lead prosecutor in the case, now in private practice.
“FINALLY !!!! A terrible wrong is being righted – a miscarriage of justice is corrected!” Phylicia Rashad, who starred as Cosby’s wife on
The Cosby Show, wrote on Instagram.
“I am furious to hear this news. I personally know women who this man drugged and raped while unconscious. Shame on the court and this decision,” actor and activist Amber Tamblyn posted on
Twitter.
“Certainly the optics of this are terrible. But the message has to be very clear and simple — that this was a mistake by prosecutors, a very unusual one and a technicality that is unlikely to happen again,” #Metoo attorney Lisa Banks said in an interview.
“I know many young women and men who are so afraid to press charges against their rapist and retraumatise themselves. I am heartbroken today to hear of the news of Cosby’s release. This is sickening. My heart is with my sister survivors. We have work to do,” tweeted actor Rosanna Arquette.
“When will things get better for women and girls regarding sexual assault, sexism, misogyny, and ageism? What will it take? So discouraged,” Kathy Griffin wrote on Twitter.
“Told you so on #Billcosby. He was convicted by a court so tainted by public opinion and social pressure that it allowed obviously prejudicial evidence and improper witnesses. He may be a bad guy, but in this case he was railroaded by the mob,” Geraldo Rivera posted on Twitter.
Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out Cosby’s sexual assault conviction and released him from prison in a stunning reversal of fortune for the comedian once known as America’s Dad, ruling that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor’s agreement not to charge Cosby.
Cosby, 83, had served nearly three years of a three- to 10-year sentence after being found guilty of drugging and violating Temple University sports administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #Metoo era.
Cosby was arrested in 2015, when a district attorney armed with newly unsealed evidence — the comic’s damaging deposition in a lawsuit filed by Constand — brought charges against him days before the 12-year statute of limitations was about to run out.
But, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that District Attorney (DA) Kevin Steele, who made the decision to arrest Cosby, was obligated to stand by his predecessor’s promise not to charge Cosby, though there was no evidence that promise was ever put in writing.
Justice David Wecht, writing for a split court, said Cosby had relied on the previous district attorney’s decision not to charge him when the comedian gave his potentially incriminating testimony in Constand’s civil case.
The court called Cosby’s subsequent arrest “an affront to fundamental fairness, particularly when it results in a criminal prosecution that was forgone for more than a decade”. It said justice and “fair play and decency” require that the district attorney’s office stands by the decision of the previous DA.