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Bill Cosby had his conviction for sexual assault overturned by a Pennsylvania appeals court on Wednesday, a decision that set free a man whose case had represented the first high-profile sexual assault trial to unfold in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement.
Mr. Cosby had served three years of a three- to 10-year prison sentence at a maximum-security facility outside Philadelphia when the seven-member Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Cosby, 83, had been denied a fair trial in 2018.
The ruling upended the legal case against Mr. Cosby brought by prosecutors in Pennsylvania that began with his arrest in 2015 on charges of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his home in the Philadelphia suburbs eleven years earlier. At the end of the trial in April 2018, the jury convicted Mr. Cosby, who for years had brightened America’s living rooms as a beloved entertainer and father figure, of three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand, to whom Mr. Cosby had been a mentor and who was at the time a Temple University employee.
In 2019, an interim court had upheld the trial verdict. But the Supreme Court, the state’s highest court, agreed to consider the case, and at a hearing in December, some of the court’s seven justices questioned prosecutors sharply.
In their 79-page opinion, the judges wrote that a “non-prosecution agreement” that had been struck with a previous prosecutor meant that Mr. Cosby should not have been charged in the case, and that he should be discharged. They barred a retrial in the case.
In 2005, Mr. Cosby was investigated in the case of Ms. Constand, and a former district attorney of Montgomery County had given Mr. Cosby his assurance that he would not be charged in the case. The former district attorney, Bruce Castor Jr., has testified that while there was insufficient evidence to bring a criminal prosecution, he had given Mr. Cosby the assurance to encourage him to testify in a subsequent civil case brought by Ms. Constand.
In that testimony, Mr. Cosby acknowledged giving quaaludes to women he was pursuing for sex — evidence that played a key part in his trial after Mr. Castor’s successors reopened the case and charged Mr. Cosby in December 2015. That was just days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired in the case, and it came amid a number of new accusations from women who brought similar accusations of drugging and sexual assault against Mr. Cosby.
“In light of these circumstances, the subsequent decision by successor D. A.s to prosecute Cosby violated Cosby’s due process rights,” the appeals ruling said. “No other conclusion comports with the principles of due process and fundamental fairness to which all aspects of our criminal justice system must adhere.”
June 30, 2021
Three years into the prison sentence Bill Cosby has served at a maximum-security facility outside Philadelphia, the seven-member Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that he had been denied a fair trial in 2018. The decision sets free a man whose case had represented the first high-profile sexual assault trial to unfold in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement.
Sept. 25, 2018
A judge sentenced Mr. Cosby to three to 10 years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand 14 years ago. Mr. Cosby was led away in handcuffs after the judge denied a request that he remain free on bail while he pursues an anticipated appeal.
April 26, 2018
A jury found Mr. Cosby guilty on three counts of assaulting Ms. Constand: penetration with lack of consent, penetration while unconscious and penetration after administering an intoxicant. These are felonies, each punishable by up to 10 years in state prison, though the sentences could be served concurrently.
April 9, 2018
The retrial begins. For the first time, the amount of Mr. Cosby’s settlement with Ms. Constand is revealed: $3.38 million. And this time, the judge allows five women to testify that Mr. Cosby assaulted them in ways similar to how Ms. Constand says she was attacked. In the first trial, only one other woman was permitted to take the stand.
June 17, 2017
Mr. Cosby’s first trial ends in a mistrial after jurors remain deadlocked following six days of deliberations.
Dec. 30, 2015
Mr. Cosby is arrested on charges of aggravated indecent assault. Based on the timing described by Ms. Constand, the charges come just before the expiration of the 12-year statute of limitations for the charge.
Bill Cosby was convicted of assaulting Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee, in 2018. The case was the first high-profile conviction of the #MeToo movement, and represented a symbolic victory for the dozens of women who said they were victimized by Mr. Cosby over the years.
In her victim impact statement submitted for the sentencing phase of the trial, Ms. Constand said at the time of the assault, she was “30 years old, and a fit, confident athlete.”
I had just given my two-month notice at Temple when the man I had come to know as a mentor and friend drugged and sexually assaulted me. Instead of being able to run, jump and pretty much do anything I wanted physically, during the assault, I was paralyzed and completely helpless. I could not move my arms or legs. I couldn’t speak or even remain conscious. I was completely vulnerable, and powerless to protect myself.
After the assault, I wasn’t sure what had actually happened but the pain spoke volumes. The shame was overwhelming. Self-doubt and confusion kept me from turning to my family or friends as I normally did. I felt completely alone, unable to trust anyone, including myself.
Afterward, she returned to Canada, where she eventually reported the assault to police. “Bill Cosby took my beautiful, healthy young spirit and crushed it,” she wrote. “He robbed me of my health and vitality, my open nature, and my trust in myself and others.”
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