Prosecutor requests Supreme Court to review ruling that overturned Bill Cosby's conviction
In June, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Bill Cosby's sex crime conviction in a surprise ruling. Now — months after Cosby's release — the Pennsylvania district attorney, who first found the disgraced comedian guilty of multiple counts of sexual assault, is appealing to the United States Supreme Court to reinstate Cosby's conviction, according to Variety.
Montgomery County District Attorney, Kevin Steele — who presided over Cosby's 2018 arrest — branded the Pennsylvania court's ruling as "a dangerous precedent" and penned a petition to the Supreme Court. According to a press release outlined by Variety, Steele further argued that the ruling raised "issues under the Constitution's due process clause."
"Where a prosecutor publicly announces that he will not file criminal charges based on lack of evidence, does the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment transform that announcement into a binding promise that no charges will ever be filed, a promise that the target may rely on as if it were a grant of immunity?" Steele asked in the release.
In 2018, Cosby was sentenced to three-to-10 years in prison for sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his Philadelphia home in 2004. Constand first reported the assault on January 2005. That same year, Cosby struck a deal with former Montgomery County District Attorney, Bruce Castor, who fuddled the case after deciding not to file charges against Cosby.
In 2015, when Steele assumed his position as district attorney, Cosby was officially charged after numerous women echoed Constand's reports and alleged that Cosby had also drugged and sexually assaulted them. Three years later, Cosby was convicted. But the conviction was subsequently overturned in 2021 due to Castor's previous promises to not prosecute Cosby — which still held precedence years later.
"There is no merit to the D.A.'s request which centers on the unique facts of the Cosby case and has no impact on important federal questions of law," said Andrew Wyatt, Cosby's spokesman. "This is a pathetic last-ditch effort that will not prevail. The Montgomery County's D.A.'s fixation with Mr. Cosby is troubling to say the least."
To this day, Cosby has managed to keep a low-profile and stay out of the public eye. Perhaps this upcoming petition will change that.
