RELEASES EARLY: When Bill Cosby was found guilty in court of abuse in 2018, he was sentenced to up to ten years in prison. Now he’s out. Foto: Matt Rourke / AP
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A Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned Bill Cosby’s assault sentence. According to American media, they demand that he be released from prison today.
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The case is being updated.
According to Reuters, a court has decided to reverse the 83-year-old’s assault sentence. The release comes after the court concluded that Cosby did not have a fair trial.
Had he served his sentence throughout the period, he would have been 91 years old when he was released. Cosby has already served more than two years at a prison near Philadelphia.
The famous comedian and actor was in September 2018 sentenced to between three to ten years in prison for drugging and abusing Andrea Constand in 2004.
After receiving the sentence, he was immediately taken to the Pennsylvania State Prison to serve his sentence.
The trial is often referred to as the first judicial decision in the #metoo campaign. The 83-year-old’s defenders, however, claimed that Cosby had primarily been subjected to a witch hunt.
Points to promise from former prosecutor
The court finds that Cobys had relied on a promise from a former prosecutor in the case when he gave his testimony. It stated that Cosby would not be prosecuted for things he said during interrogation in the civil criminal case.
The court ruling states that current public prosecutor Kevin Steele, who made the decision to arrest Cosby, was obliged to abide by his predecessor’s promise.
The Supreme Court therefore saw itself forced to reverse the verdict, they state in court documents.
– It is the only remedy that corresponds with society’s reasonable expectations of its chosen prosecution authority and our criminal justice system, they write in the court decision.
Still claims his innocence
Cosby has always claimed his innocence in the case. After the verdict, he assured that he will never apologize.
“I do not want to show any remorse or apologize for a crime I have not committed,” the 83-year-old said at the time.
Around 60 women has stood up and accused the 83-year-old of abuse, but the other circumstances are outdated and can not be prosecuted. Andrea Constand’s case is the only one Cosby has been charged with.
This is what the prosecutor said in court in 2018: Cosby abused his power and fame
During the trial described Constand how the comedian abused her after giving her three blue pills that paralyzed her. Cosby himself claims that the woman consented to sex.
Previous anchor was rejected
Cosby tried several times to appeal the verdict in 2018 and 2019, but the appeals have been consistently rejected.
On June 23, 2020, however, Cosby’s appeal was accepted by the Supreme Court of the state.
I said the comedian tried to get out of jail on probation, but the request was denied by the court in Pennsylvania.
Cosby has been getting it all along full support from his wife, Camille Cosby.
– The decision is not a result of real justice, but of a people’s court and a mob rule (mob justice, editor’s note) », she wrote in 2018.
A former Cosby spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, said in 2018 that the trial was the most racist and sexist trial in US history.
