Supreme Court Upholds Release of Bill Cosby for Sexual Assault
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday declined a Pennsylvania prosecutor’s appeal to reinstate a sexual assault conviction against comedian Bill Cosby.
He was released from prison after a state court determined a district attorney had violated a pre-trial agreement with Cosby.
He agreed to admit incriminating evidence in a lawsuit by former Temple University basketball coach Andrea Constand in exchange for an immunity from prosecution.
Instead, a district attorney filed criminal charges against him after he admitted wrongdoing.
The Supreme Court upheld the state court’s ruling that the charges in violation of the immunity agreement violated Cosby’s constitutional due process rights.
Cosby was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting Constand in 2004 before being convicted in 2018. Other women made similar accusations against Cosby, who is now 84 years old.
The Supreme Court did not explain its reasons with its unsigned order. It merely upheld the ruling last June by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that led to Cosby being released from prison.
The 4-to-3 majority of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court described the charges after the immunity agreement as being like a bait-and-switch tactic. Allowing him to be prosecuted would be “an affront to fundamental fairness,” its ruling said.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said in his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court that any previous agreement not to prosecute Cosby would create too much immunity for criminal defendants.
He also said in a public statement last November, “This decision as it stands will have far-reaching negative consequences beyond Montgomery County and Pennsylvania. The U.S. Supreme Court can right what we believe is a grievous wrong.”
Cosby’s attorneys answered in a court filing that allowing the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling to stand would not jeopardize any other efforts to prosecute criminal suspects.
“The narrowly tailored decision of the Cosby court is not at odds with any other case and is so factually unique that it fails to present any question that is likely to arise in the future with any regularity,” Cosby’s lawyers wrote in a Supreme Court filing in January.
The case is Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. William Henry Cosby Jr. before the Supreme Court of the United States.
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