Supreme Court Rejects Bill Cosby Sexual Assault Case

On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to further prosecute Bill Cosby, whose sexual assault conviction was overturned last summer.

Less than a year after Bill Cosby was released from prison, the Supreme Court has dismissed a bid from Pennsylvania prosecutor to appeal a state court ruling from last summer. While the high court hasn't explained why the case was rejected, the brief unsigned order affirms the court's decision to release Cosby last year, according to The Hill.

In a 4-3 ruling, Pennsylvania's top court decided that evidence used in Cosby’s 2018 conviction violated his due process rights and subjected the 84-year-old comedian to a "bait-and-switch". Declining to hear and reinstate Cosby's conviction,  the case was also included in a long list of cases the court said it would not hear.

In June 2021, Cosby was released from prison after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his sex assault conviction “after finding an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in a case.” Cosby served nearly three years of a three to ten-year state prison sentence. 2021 was the first year Cosby was eligible for parole after his 2018 conviction.

In January, director W. Kamau Bell released four-part Showtime docuseries We Need to Talk About Cosby which explored the comedian's questionable legacy. But Cosby didn't take kindly to Bell's work, sending a scathing email to Entertainment Weekly about the film entitled “Official Response to PR Hack W. Kamau Bell’s Showtime Documentary, We Need to Talk About Cosby."

“Mr. Cosby has spent more than 50 years standing with the excluded; made it possible for some to be included; standing with the disenfranchised; and standing with those women and men who were denied respectful work… because of race and gender… within the expanses of the entertainment industries,” a representative for Cosby said in the emailed statement. “Mr. Cosby continues to be the target of numerous media that have, for too many years, distorted and omitted truths… intentionally.” Cosby’s rep went on to add that despite reports of allegations, “none have ever been proven in any court of law.”