LAL #038 — Wow! Just Wow! Bill Cosby is a Free Man

Share, Like, Post, Tweet, Repost, Retweet, and Talk Aloud About It. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed the conviction of Bill Cosby for the rape of Andrea Constand in a stinging rebuke of Commonwealth prosecutors. The Court ruled that prosecutors cannot retry Cosby, now 83. By the time you read this, he should be a free man. Cosby was tried twice for the rape of Ms. Constand.  When the first trial ended in a hung jury, with no unanimous verdict, Pennsylvania tried again, adding more witnesses. The second trial resulted in a conviction. But fatal to both trials, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled, was the use of evidence the Commonwealth promised Cosby it would never use. In 2005, Ms. Constand claimed Cosby had raped her one year earlier. Prosecutors investigated the claim and found it wanting. Because they did not think they could get a conviction, they encouraged Ms. Constand to sue Cosby civilly. In order to eliminate any use of the fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination, prosecutors agreed never to prosecute Cosby for a crime. Ms. Constand sued, Cosby testified at a deposition, and the case settled for north of $3 million. At his criminal trials a decade later, prosecutors used his deposition testimony against him. In other words, they induced him to waive his right to remain silent and then used his own words to help convict him. When challenged at the trial level, prosecutors claimed that the agreement they reached was informal. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court wasn't buying that sorry tune today. In a stinging rebuke, it reminded prosecutors of the obvious: they are ministers of justice. In this case, they behaved unjustly. Question:  Does Pennsylvania now pay Cosby for the abuse of his constitutional rights? Join Norm Pattis's growing subscriber base on Patreon. And give Law and Legitimacy a 5-Star rating on your platform of choice and leave a review! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/norm-pattis/support