The highest court in Pennsylvania has repealed sexual assault conviction against Bill Cosby, allowing the comedian to be released from jail and return home.
On Wednesday, the court said that it took hold of a deal with a previous prosecutor halting charges against him.
Cosby, 83, who was famous for being the “America’s Dad”, was charged with drugging and abusing Andrea Constand in 2018.
The comedian faced three to 10 years imprisonment but has rendered more than a couple of years at a state detention close to Philadelphia.
In 2015, Cosby was convicted after a prosecutor, armed with new evidence, seized him prior to the expiration of the 12-year written limitations.
One other plaintiff was initially permitted by the trial judge to testify at the trial but following the jury’s stalemate, the judge allowed five more plaintiffs to attest during the second trial.
The testimony, according to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, has contaminated the trial. However, the law regarding prior bad act testimony is not the same from one state to another.
It was not revealed by the prosecutors if they intend to appeal for a third trial for Cosby’s case.
“My reaction to the ruling is I am thrilled and I am pleased that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court saw what we knew all along, which was that Mr Cosby never should have been prosecuted for this for this case,” Jennifer Bonjean, Cosby’s lawyer, said.
“He relied on representations of a prior district attorney and he relied on them to his detriment. And then the current district attorney not only reneged on that promise, but then used his own words against him.”
“It is was fundamentally unfair. It was driven by politics. And that’s how we got here today. And we’re quite pleased that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court seems impervious to what is going on on the outside world and all of that pressure that was placed on the criminal justice system from hashtag movements and other and other media, not just not just social media, but mainstream media, frankly.”
This 2021 was the first year Cosby has qualified for parole. He was denied for the opportunity last May as he refused to join in sex offender programs.
