Bill Cosby walks free after sexual assault conviction overturned
Comic celebrates victory. but will it derail other #MeToo reckonings?
Bill Cosby has walked free from prison after his sexual assault conviction was overturned.
Judges on Pennsylvania s Supreme Court said the comedian should not have faced trial for sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004 because of a promise made by a former district attorney.
Prosecutor Kevin Steele should have been tied by his predecessor s promise not to charge Cosby after he gave potentially incriminating testimony in an earlier civil suit, the court ruled.
The Supreme Court also said that allowing other accusers to Testify about their experiences with Cosby at his retrial was unfair, even though a lower appeals court had found it appropriate to show a pattern of him drugging and molesting women.
Credit Min Xian / WPSU
A proposed amendment to Pennsylvania’s Constitution that would change how Supreme Court and appeals court judges are elected could have been on the state ballot as early as May, but Senate President Pro Tem Jake Corman said he expects there to be greater review of the issue first.
The Pennsylvania General Assembly passed the proposal in the 2019-20 session. A Constitutional Amendment has to pass in two consecutive sessions before it goes to voters as a referendum.
not think it will be on the ballot this May.
“We want to take some time, and maybe hold some hearings and get as much input on it as possible,” Corman said.