Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction was overturned by the highest court in the state of Pennsylvania after an agreement with a former prosecutor determined that he could not be charged in the case.
The 83-year-old entertainer has served more than two years of a three to ten year prison sentence in a state prison near Philadelphia.
He had vowed to serve out every 10 years instead of recognizing remorse over meeting prosecutor Andrea Constand in 2004.
Cosby was charged in 2015 when a prosecutor armed with newly unsealed evidence – Cosby’s late damaging testimony from Constand’s lawsuits – arrested him days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired.
The court said that District Attorney Kevin Steele, who made the decision to arrest Cosby, was under an obligation to keep his predecessor’s promise not to prosecute Cosby when he later made potentially incriminating testimony in Constand’s civil lawsuit.
There was no evidence that the promise was ever put into writing.
The Pennsylvania court judge said Wednesday Cosby relied on the former prosecutor’s decision not to indict him when he made potentially incriminating statements later in the civil suit.
Overturning the conviction and ruling out further prosecution “is the only means that society has reasonable expectations of its elected prosecutors and our criminal justice system,” the court ruled.
Cosby was found guilty of drugging and molesting Constand. During the trial, the judge had only allowed one other prosecutor to testify about Cosby, but in a retrial, five others were allowed to testify about their experiences with him in the 1980s.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said the testimony tainted the trial, despite a lower appeals court finding it appropriate to show a distinctive pattern of substance abuse and harassment of women.
Cosby became the first celebrity to be tried and convicted in the #MeToo era.
In New York, the judge who led the trial of film mogul Harvey Weinstein last year, whose case sparked the explosion of the #MeToo movement in 2017, had four other prosecutors testify.
Weinstein was convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison. He is now facing separate charges in California.
In May, Cosby was denied parole after refusing to participate in sex offender programs during nearly three years in state prison. He has long stated that he would oppose treatment programs and refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing, even if it means serving the full 10-year sentence.
Cosby, a pioneering black actor who grew up in a council flat in Philadelphia, made a fortune estimated at $ 400 million in his 50 years in the entertainment industry.
His trademark clean comedy and homely wisdom fueled popular TV shows, books, and stand-up acts.
The AP does not usually identify victims of sexual assault without their permission, which Constand has given.
Those:Euronews
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