Bill Cosby released from prison after Pennsylvania high court overturns conviction
06/30/2021 10:33 am PDT
PHILADELPHIA (TCD) --
UPDATE: Bill Cosby was released from prison Wednesday.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Bill Cosby’s 2019 sexual assault conviction in a Wednesday ruling, finding that a “non-prosecution agreement” with a previous prosecutor should have prevented him from being charged in the case, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Cosby, 83, has served two years of a three-to-10-year sentence in a state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home 15 years ago. He’s reportedly set to be released Wednesday.
Cosby was charged in late 2015. The trial judge had allowed one other accuser to testify at Cosby’s first trial, when the jury deadlocked, but the judge then allowed five other accusers to testify at the retrial about their experiences with Cosby in the 1980s, KYW-TV reports.
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, KYW-TV reports.
Cosby had recently been denied parole.
Prosecutors did not immediately say if they would appeal or seek to try Cosby for a third time, the Associated Press reports.
The website for the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania appeared to be down following Wednesday’s announcement.
MORE:
- Bill Cosby’s conviction overturned by Pa. Supreme Court - Philadelphia Inquirer
- Bill Cosby To Be Released From Prison Wednesday After Court Overturns Sex Assault Conviction - KYW
- Bill Cosby to be released from prison after conviction vacated - ABC News
- Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction overturned by PA Supreme court after 2 years in prison - USA Today