Bill Cosby to Be Released from Prison After Judge Overturns Conviction for Sexual Assault

Corrected: I am reading the decision now and now understand how Cosby got his immunity.

Cosby was forced to testify in a civil case for sexual assault. The prosecutor gave him immunity from criminal prosecution in order to compel him to testify in civil court.

Otherwise Cosby could plead the fifth in civil court, saying any answer he gave could be used against him in criminal court. Giving Cosby immunity takes away his fifth amendment right to not testify.

That prosecutor claimed he believed it would be too difficult to convict Cosby without forensic evidence, so it was better that he be compelled to testify in civil court rather than keeping open a phantom possibility of charging him criminally.

A later prosecutor ignored this deal and charged him for the crime.

Now a judge rules, correctly I guess, that Cosby had immunity, whether a later prosecutor likes it or not.

So as it stands, Cosby is unconvicted and free.

Pennsylvania's highest court overturned Bill Cosby's sex assault conviction Wednesday after finding an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case.

Cosby has served more than two years of a three-to-10-year sentence at a state prison near Philadelphia. He had vowed to serve all 10 years rather than acknowledge any remorse over the 2004 encounter with accuser Andrea Constand.

Update: Here's the opinion.

posted by Ace at 01:17 PM

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