Unfortunately, the Decision Overturning Bill Cosby’s Conviction Makes Sense – By Mark Joseph Stern (Slate) / June 30 2021
Don’t blame the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Blame prosecutor-turned–Trump lawyer Bruce Castor.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Bill Cosby’s 2018 sexual assault conviction on Wednesday in a 6–1 decision. By a 4–3 vote, the court also prohibited the future prosecution of Cosby for his crime, forestalling the possibility of a new trial. Because Cosby is, beyond doubt, a sexual predator, Wednesday’s ruling may feel unjust. But the fault here does not lie with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. It lies, rather, with Bruce Castor, the Republican former district attorney who promised not to prosecute Cosby in 2005. Castor’s dubious deal—which two justices implied to be corrupt—formed the basis of the court’s conclusion that prosecutors violated Cosby’s due process rights. The decision is a dispiriting reminder of the damage that prosecutors can inflict when they wield their power as recklessly as Castor did 16 years ago.
The story behind Wednesday’s decision reaches back to 2002, when Cosby befriended a woman named Andrea Constand through their mutual connections at Temple University. Cosby became a mentor to Constand, and in 2004, she visited him at his home. He offered her three blue pills, which he called her “friends”; hesitantly, she took them. She then began to feel dizzy and realized she could not move or speak. Before losing consciousness, she saw Cosby fondle her breasts, penetrate her vagina with his fingers, and use her hand to masturbate himself. Later, when she came to, her pants were unzipped and her bra was out of place.
In 2005, Constand reported her assault to the police. The case fell under Castor’s purview, since he was then serving as district attorney of Montgomery County, where Cosby’s home was located. Following a brief investigation, Castor decided that he could not win a criminal prosecution against Cosby, claiming he believed Constand would not be a credible witness. Instead, Castor told Constand that he had hatched a plan to facilitate a civil suit against Cosby. He put out a press release announcing that, as “the representative of the sovereign” (that is, Pennsylvania), he had decided never to prosecute Cosby for this alleged crime. By doing so, Castor said he had stripped Cosby of his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination: Since Cosby couldn’t be prosecuted for his sexual assault, he could no longer refuse to testify about it. Constand then filed a civil suit. At deposition, Cosby admitted that, in the past, he had given quaaludes to women he wanted to have sex with. The parties eventually settled the case for $3.38 million.
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