Prosecution appeals decision to make Cosby a free man to Supreme Court

Jun 30, 2021

Ben Burke Producer

By Ben Burke (Producer)

Update (11/29/21): Nearly five months after Bill Cosby became a free man, prosecutors filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court Monday appealing the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to overturn his conviction. Back in June, the court ruled a previous agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented Cosby from being charged. The only written evidence of such a promise is a 2005 press release from the prosecutor, who said he did not have enough evidence to arrest Cosby. Prosecutors said the Pennsylvania ruling could set a dangerous precedent if convictions are overturned over dubious closed-door deals.

“This decision as it stands will have far-reaching negative consequences beyond Montgomery County and Pennsylvania,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele wrote in the petition. “The U.S. Supreme Court can right what we believe is a grievous wrong.”

Prosucutors have also accused Pennsylvania’s Chief Justice of misstating key facts of the case discussing the court ruling in a television interview.

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Original Story (6/30/21): In a twist to the story of Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction, he became a free man Wednesday after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction. The court ruled a previous agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented Cosby from being charged.

Those charges came in 2015 and were related to a 2004 encounter with Temple University employee Andrea Constand. Cosby was accused and convicted of drugging and molesting Constand at his suburban estate.

The trial judge had allowed just one other accuser to testify at Cosby’s first trial, which ended in a deadlocked jury. At the retrial, the judge allowed five other accusers to testify about their experiences with Cosby in the 1980s.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that testimony tainted the trial. A lower appeals court had found it appropriate to show a signature pattern of drugging and molesting women.

Prosecutors did not immediately say if they would appeal or seek to try Cosby for a third time.

Wednesday evening, Cosby took to Twitter. “I have never changed my stance nor my story. I have always maintained my innocence,” Cosby tweeted. “Thank you to all my fans, supporters and friends who stood by me through this ordeal. Special thanks to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for upholding the rule of law.”

Cosby has served more than two years of a three-to-10-year sentence at a state prison near Philadelphia. In May, Cosby was denied parole after refusing to participate in sex offender programs during his sentence. He has long said he would resist the treatment programs and refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing, even if it means serving the full 10-year sentence.

Cosby was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era. Even though the law on prior bad act testimony varies by state and the ruling only holds sway in Pennsylvania, the reversal could make prosecutors wary of calling other accusers in similar cases.

“We love you, Mr. Cosby. We love you sir. We love you sir. We knew it, we knew it, we knew it.”

Andrew Wyatt, Bill Cosby’s publicist: “We want to thank the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court, as I mentioned earlier, for reviewing Mr. Cosby’s appeal, but also seeing the light. Seeing the lies, saying that Mr. Cosby had immunity, this U.S. citizen who served our country in the Navy. Not just in the Navy, but he served our country in so many different ways through his celebrity, him and Mrs. Cosby. Mr. Cosby has always used his celebrity, his name, his likeness to uplift women, this is a man who refused to perform at the White House with Nixon. Nixon put him on a communist list in the 60s. Along with so many other great names like Dick Gregory, Jane Fonda. How could a man who was being watched by the FBI every day be raping and drugging women in the 60s or 70s, especially a black man? Today, innocence came to Mr. Cosby with the help of these wonderful attorneys. As I said earlier, James Brown made a song, It’s a man’s world, there’d would be nothing without a woman, a girl. Mrs. Cosby was that woman. For 57 years the queen, the matriarch of the Cosby family who fought for his vindication, who said he would be vindicated. And today, on this hot day, this is a hot verdict for us that we will forever cherish because we got one of the greatest or the greatest entertainer alive today. Mr. Bill Cosby is a great American citizen, this American treasure, this icon.”

Jennifer Bonjean, Bill Cosby’s lawyer:

“Obviously, we are thrilled to have Mr. Cosby home. He served three years of an unjust sentence and he did it with dignity and principle and he was a mentor to other inmates. He was really, as I say, doing the time but the time was not doing him. They’ve demonstrated that they were impervious to the court of public opinion, which, frankly, the lower courts were not. Mr. Cosby, we knew all along he never should have been prosecuted for this. He had every right to rely on the prosecutor’s word and they pulled the rug out from underneath him because of politics, because of the court of public opinion. And that is not how our system should operate. When that happens, there cannot be a just sentence. And if there had been a just verdict and a just sentence, we wouldn’t be here fighting. But there was not a just sentence and not a just verdict.”

Andrew Wyatt, Bill Cosby’s publicist: “You know, what we saw today was justice, justice for all Americans, Mr. Cosby conviction being overturned is for the world and all Americans who are being treated unfairly by the judicial system and some bad officers because all officers are not bad.”