Court Battles

READ: The court opinion that overturned Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction

Pennsylvania’s state Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered Bill Cosby’s release, overturning his conviction for sexual assault.

In its decision, the state Supreme Court found that Cosby should not have been charged and sentenced for raping Andrea Constand due to a previous agreement with a prosecutor who promised his testimony on those charges would not be used against him.

The court said that overturning the 2018 conviction, and barring any further prosecution, “is the only remedy that comports with society’s reasonable expectations of its elected prosecutors and our criminal justice system.”

“Anything less under these circumstances would permit the Commonwealth to extract incriminating evidence from a defendant who relies upon the elected prosecutor’s words, actions, and intent, and then use that evidence against that defendant with impunity,” the justices wrote in their decision.

Read the full decision below:

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