Bill Cosby is a free man after being released from prison

Bill Cosby served more than two years of a ten year sentence and he is finally out. The 83-year-old disgraced comedian arrived home on June 30, just hours after Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned his 2018 sexual assault conviction.

Despite a jury finding Bill Cosby guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault after he drugged and sexually assaulted Andrea Constand in his Philadelphia home in 2004, the high court freed Cosby due to prior legal arrangement. In the first photos of Bill following this decision, he looked chipper through the window of the car that drove him to his Pennsylvania home. Cosby appeared to smile, obviously happy that he was no longer behind bars.

Bill Cosby’s freedom came after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued its ruling on Wednesday. The court overturned Cosby’s conviction after discovering an agreement with a previous prosecutor that should have prevented Cosby from being charged over the assault, per the Seattle Times. Justice David Wecht, writing for a split court, said Cosby relied on this agreement when he gave potentially incriminating testimony in Andrea Constand’s civil suit. The high court said that District Attorney Kevin Steele, who made the call to have Cosby arrested in 2015, was “obligated to stand by his predecessor’s promise not to charge Cosby when he later gave potentially incriminating testimony in Constand’s civil suit,” per the Seattle Times. The ruling also states that Cosby can’t be retired on the same charges.

Photo: Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images

“When an unconditional charging decision is made publicly and with the intent to induce action and reliance by the defendant, and when the defendant does so to his detriment (and in some instances upon the advice of counsel), denying the defendant the benefit of that decision is an affront to fundamental fairness, particularly when it results in a criminal prosecution that was foregone for more than a decade,” read the high court’s opinion, per NBC News. “For these reasons, Cosby’s convictions and judgment of sentence are vacated, and he is discharged.”

The trial judge allowed just one other accuser to testify at Cosby’s first trial which ended in a deadlocked jury. At the retrial, the judge allowed five other accusers to testify, each sharing their experiences with Bill Cosby in the 1980s. The Supreme Court said this testimony tainted the trial. However, a lower appeals court ruled that it was appropriate for the prosecution to show a pattern of drugging and molesting women.

Cosby refused to offer any remorse over the encounter. He vowed to serve the full 10 years instead. In May 2021, he was denied parole after refusing to participate in sex offender programs. He said, per the Seattle Times, that he would resist the treatment programs and refuse to acknowledge the wrongdoing.

As of 2018, there were 60 women who accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault or rape.

Source: hollywoodlife.com