The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the indecent assault conviction of Bill Cosby on Wednesday and ordered his release from prison after finding that he was denied protection against self-incrimination. Danny Cevallos and Kristen Gibbons Feden discuss.
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Bill Cosby Out Of Prison After Conviction Overturned | MSNBC
*the unholy…* rule… in our world…
True
This supreme court had the option to reverse and remand, had the option on the other issue. I think they would have, I think the decision by one judge in one trial to not let in that testimony and then, when it hangs comes back in the second trial and basically open the barnyard door and says come one come all tell your story. That made the difference in the trial and the supreme court likely would have found that. But they decided instead, no, we are taking it all the way to the beginning before the first trial. When there were charges on Dec 30, 2015, that is the decision that was wronged. So, it is not a decision by DA Castor that was wrong making the deal. Prosecutors have all the discretion in the world. It was the decision by DA Steele to not honor it that violates Mr. Cosby rights. If you just think about the way prosecutors, come up with plea agreements then the courts ratify those agreements. What if the prosecutor ten years later decide the day before your little brother suppose to get out on a deal that was ten -20, and says we shouldn’t have offered that, that’s too low. We think you did some other things. We can’t get him for the other things. So, we are going to stack on time here. That cannot be the way our justice system works. No. Be thankful the PA supreme court sent that message very clearly yesterday.
I normally love your guys’s content I got to say I’m distraught over this whole line of the way this is being covered the prosecutor who is also a contributor to your network has to basically defend her career at this point because they should not have even brought this case she is not outraged for the victim she’s outrageous because now she just lost a case that made her career and now it should break it as they knew this was an issue from day one whether you agree or disagree this issue was raised from day one and they knew that they should not have brought the case based upon Bill Cosby’s testimony this was not a procedural technicality this was a major violation by the prosecutor team
I’m an attorney and I agree completely. Merits of the accusations aside, I don’t know how the case even got this far. The prosecutors office offered an immunity agreement and in reliance Cosby didn’t invoke the fifth amendment during his deposition and he made statements that were self incriminating. Had there been no agreement in place I guarantee you Cosby’s attorneys would have advised him to take the fifth during the deposition. Had he taken the fifth the prosecutors would have had nothing to prosecute him on because they had no evidence prior to the deposition. The prosecution only went forward because of the self incriminating statements Cosby made during the depositions.
@876ME So this was like where petty mobsters, providing testimony about their bosses, would confess to heaps of irrelevant crimes while protected by the fifth?
Totally agree. She comes off as a real crybaby and is now scraping for reasons why she should’ve won
She sounds upset, to the point of accusing the Supreme Court of wrong doing. Even claiming the agreement is fictional..
And she took the money
Did the original prosecutor make the “verbal” agreement with Cosby or didn’t he? If there was any doubt of the agreement the only thing that needed to be done was ask Bruce Caster. Is Caster still alive? Was the “victim” paid for that alleged “agreement?” Why did the victim accept the $3.38 million? If she accepted that money that’s further proof that there was an agreement. If the new prosecutor knew of the agreement and went ahead with prosecuting Cosby for the alleged sexual assault of Constand he knew he was wrong and the higher court justly threw the case out. Cosby, in essence, paid twice for the same crime. He paid the victim money and spent two and a half years for his “affair” with the victim.
It wasn’t a verbal agreement; he actually made a public announcement that there would be no prosecution.
Did you actually listen to the clip? Because if you did you would have heard them state in the clip that Bruce castor testified and stated that he offered Cosby the non prosecution deal and he had a press conference where he also publicly stated that.
Real talk
Well said Duane 👋
Dear poor people: if you did the same thing, you’d be in prison for life. Do not attempt.
If it was a poor person cherry bomb would not have been able to use the court to extort em.
Don’t attempt to give women ibuprofen?
@Michael Dunson He got off on a technicality, he was guilty and admitted it.
The salient point is that the prosecutor supposedly tricked him into admitting it thereby violating his 5th amendment rights.
Rights I might add that make the US the legal mockery of the civilized world.
Such rules were made to protect the powerful and the rich, and that’s exactly what happened here.
Dear white ppl. If you did the same thing you are not getting out.
so true. When you hear regular people convictions overturned they have to wait a while before they are released.
I love the second guy…. Shows what a tv attorney vs a active attorney knows about criminal law.
“Shows what a tv attorney vs a active attorney knows about criminal law.”
It’s not a question of what they know, it’s a question of how sharp their mind is after years letting it go to rot without another lawyer to square off with.
It’s her indignant attitude – about having broken the law – which she swore to up hold 😏. I can”t with this arrogance of law enforcement entitlement
🤔Wonder if her law firm has broken the law before – to get a conviction on a person for breaking a law? Feels like planted drugs on a “known” drug dealer.
Some of that Blues line reasoning.
Cosby’s peers judged him and found him guilty. are you one of these republican idiots who just can’t see the truth when it hits you in the face.
All agreements are ‘verbal’. It’s just that some are written, and some are oral, agreements.
A prosecutor making a promise to a defendant that lead to the defendant giving up their constitutional fifth amendment right is not a “blip” or “technical error.” It is a defendant in a criminal matter giving up their constitutional right based on them relying on the prosecutor’s promise. That is a huge deal regardless of how these folks are trying to minimize it!
What you are basically doing is glorifying someone getting away with a serious crime on a technicality of the law.
This is precisely how OJ Simpson got away with murder.
@Kenny Hill People get away with crimes every day. I understand why you are upset, but this is a cornerstone of criminal law, and they were correct to observe and enforce it.
@Kenny Hill do you know what the word glorify actually means? You are clearly using it incorrectly, so you might want to look it up. Anyways, I’m a lawyer and I understand exactly why Cosby’s conviction was overturned. It’s not a technicality. Prosecutorial misconduct deprived Cosby of his fifth amendment constitutional rights. Prosecutors are held to an extremely high standard. They should not be allowed to deprive people of their constitutional rights. It’s that simple.
@Kenny Hill Oh, another black man that America likes to put away in jail despite white men breaking every law there is…
Also, it’s an issue of due process and not a technicality. A deal is a deal. Technicality minimizes what happened. This man waved his rights.
@Milan’s Playhouse Goes to show how messed up our system is that a violent attacker who used his power to coerce women into situations where he could drug them and perform sexual acts on them is able to get off because he has lawyers willing and able to point out the flaws in the police work– and yet a many individuals falsely convicted of murder continue to rot in prison despite even shoddier police work due to their lack of financial and or educational privilege.
President Insurrection would wish him well and say he’s been totally exonerated if he still had social media.
Nah, Cosby’s black.
@Progressive Humanist Being a fellow predator and criminal trumps race.
This is f ing insane!
The prosecution messed up. Period.
She has the nerve to cry foul after prosecuting a case which should’ve never been brought. I question your integrity ma’am.
How would she know it didn’t happen, when the prosecutor has maintained it has happened. Who would willingly give his testimony if there was no agreement, whatsoever. She sounds ridiculous.
She simply said there was no evidence supporting his claim. She said that those types of agreements are always in writing and approved by a court.
Doesn’t sound ridiculous to me.
I’ve also had a lawyer tell me if the “verbal” contract was not also in writing, it’s a he said/she said and I was not likely to win. (And I even had emails supporting my claim.)
@Norma Forsyth The prosecutor testified that he made it and, apparently, gave a press conference saying such as well. Also, the verbal agreement was made by a government employee, a prosecutor. A second prosecutor ignored the agreement, and prosecuted Bill anyway. He was keeping a campaign promise it seems. Your personal matter is a lot different, respectfully.
@Gary Hughes ah, I see. Didn’t realize one gave the promise and a different guy prosecuted.
Once again Bruce Caster proves to be a totally incompetent barrister.
Maybe there is a conspiracy of the elite, just not on the left but on the right.
Oral agreements are binding. And is considered a verbal contract.
Happy to see that Cosby is free I believe in him. Now let them go jail Trump. Trump for prison
You are easily led.
So the old “Perv” got off on a technicality……at least he was convicted in Civil Court by his own admission, and the whole world knows what he did.