Tuesday, November 30th, 2021
Prosecutor’s initiative
Cosby is supposed to go back to jail
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Former comedy star Bill Cosby was already in jail, but was then released – but not because his innocence had been proven. Now the public prosecutor is trying to correct “the serious injustice”.
Five months after the overturning of former US television star Bill Cosby’s conviction of sexual abuse, prosecutors have moved the case to be examined by the US Supreme Court. The Supreme Court could correct a “serious injustice”, said the responsible prosecutor of the Montgomery district in the state of Pennsylvania, Kevin Steele.
Cosby was released from prison on June 30 after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the verdict against the 84-year-old. The justification given by the judges was that Cosby had been denied a fair trial.
The actor who became world famous with the sitcom “The Bill Cosby Show” was found guilty in 2018 of sexually abusing a woman in 2004. The court ruled that Cosby had drugged his victim Andrea Constand in his Philadelphia home and had molested the woman. Cosby was sentenced to a minimum of three and a maximum of ten years in prison. An appeals court confirmed this in December 2019.
60 women accused him
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court later overturned the conviction. The judges pointed out that the then investigating public prosecutor had promised after the uncovering of the allegations in 2005 not to initiate a criminal case against Cosby if he testifies in a civil case for compensation. The prosecutor’s successor later initiated criminal proceedings against the actor. Statements by Cosby from the civil proceedings were used against him.
Cosby has been accused of sexual abuse by more than 60 women, but most of the cases are statute-barred. The actor was revered as “America’s Dad” in the United States for decades. In the role as the amiable doctor and good-natured family man on the “Bill Cosby Show”, he was one of the most popular TV stars in the country. His conviction was the first conviction against a celebrity since the #MeToo movement began.
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