Bill Cosby to be released from prison after court overturns his sexual assault conviction

AP

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the TV icon's 2018 conviction for sexual assault today after finding that an agreement between him and a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case. Cosby, the first celebrity tired in the #MeToo era, has served more than two years of his three- to 10-year sentence at a state prison near Pennsylvania. He vowed to serve all 10 years rather than express remorse after being convicted for sexually assaulting Temple University employee Andrea Constand by drugging and molesting her in 2004. "He was charged in late 2015, when a prosecutor armed with newly unsealed evidence — Cosby’s damaging deposition from her lawsuit — arrested him days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired," reports The Associated Press. "The trial judge had allowed just one other accuser to testify at Cosby’s first trial, when the jury deadlocked. However, he then allowed five other accusers to testify at the retrial about their experiences with Cosby in the 1980s. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that testimony tainted the trial, even though a lower appeals court had found it appropriate to show a signature pattern of drugging and molesting women...The justices voiced concern not just about sex assault cases, but what they saw as the judiciary’s increasing tendency to allow testimony that crosses the line into character attacks. The law allows the testimony only in limited cases, including to show a crime pattern so specific it serves to identify the perpetrator." Prosecutors did not immediately say if they would appeal or seek to try Cosby for a third time.

ALSO:

• Phylicia Rashad celebrates: "FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!" tweeted Cosby's former Cosby Show co-star
• Hollywood stars react with disgust over Cosby's release: "THE F*CK IS THIS BULLSH*T," tweeted Aisha Tyler