The comedian Bill Cosby has been released from jail on Wednesday after serving two years of a sentence of between three and ten years for sexual assault, after the Supreme Court of the state of Pennsylvania annulled the conviction hours before due to failures in the judicial process .
According to the court’s ruling, Cosby, 83, had a settlement with the first prosecution that would have prevented him from going to prison, so he spoke freely about the lawsuit that had been filed against him for sexual abuse. Later that statement was used by another prosecutorial team, being key to his conviction.
“When the decision of unconditional prosecution is made publicly and with the intention of inducing action by the accused, and when he does so to his detriment (and in some cases on the advice of his lawyer), denying him the benefit of that decision , is an affront to fundamental justice, especially when it leads to criminal proceedings, “says the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
“Unable to invoke any right not to testify in a civil proceeding, Cosby trusted Montgomery District Attorney Bruce Castor and proceeded to provide four affidavits, during which he made several incriminating assertions,” the court explains.
However, the successors of prosecutor Castor, “did not feel obliged” to continue with the agreement “and decided to prosecute Cosby despite that previous commitment. (…) Cosby’s sworn incriminating testimony was later used in a process criminal “against him.
“For these reasons, the conviction and sentence are annulled and he will be released,” settles the court’s ruling, which also prohibits starting any other process based on the same evidence.
Cosby, known for years as “America’s Daddy,” was sentenced to a minimum of three years and a maximum of ten in 2018 for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004. The charge was filed in 2015 and he was arrested within days before the charges were prescribed, recalls NBC.
The victims of Cosby, which was one of the first criminal trials of a celebrity in the #MeToo movement, have considered this decision a “slap in the face,” in the words of one of the victims’ attorneys, Lisa Bloom. .
For its part, the Cosby family has thanked the Supreme Court for seeing the light and the truth, “according to a statement issued by its press representative, Andrew Wyatt, who has been in charge of picking up the comedian as he leaves the center. penitentiary.
