Supreme Court asked to reinstate conviction for Bill Cosby, raising civil rights concerns.

 

Bill Cosby at his sentencing hearing in 2018. Fox News/AP.

The Supreme Court has been asked to reinstate a conviction for disgraced actor Bill Cosby, raising civil rights concerns. Fox News. Cosby's conviction was tossed because the evidence was based on open testimony that Cosby only gained through an agreement with prosecutors to not prosecute him. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said the prosecution under those circumstances was an "affront to fundamental fairness". Prosecutors argue that the ruling would endanger other cases, with charges dropped in one case already. It is unclear if the case will be taken by the Supreme Court. 

My Comment:

Let me be clear, I believe the charges against Bill Cosby. I think he raped women and is a horrible abuser. He certainly deserves to be in prison and it's not great that he is out of jail. Two years in prison was not enough for what he did.

With that being said, this really isn't about Bill Cosby. It's about civil rights. Cosby should have never been convicted in the first place. The evidence against him was collected illegally. He made an agreement with a prosecutor and then another prosecutor went back on his word and ended up trying and convicting him. 

That was a huge violation of the 5th amendment. You can't compel someone to testify against themselves and that's what the prosecutors did in this case. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed and let Cosby out of jail. That was the right thing to have happened. 

I don't buy the prosecutors argument. Sure, some criminals may not be prosecuted but that's a good thing. Going back on deals is not something we should ever encourage. And if the crime was so serious that doing so is even something people would consider than perhaps the prosecutor should be fired. We should not be encouraging prosecutors from doing this kind of thing. 

I think it would backfire on prosecutors long term. Nobody is going to want to make a deal in Pennsylvania if they know that many years down the line they can have their own words used against them regardless of any deal they made. That means there will be fewer convictions and fewer deals made, meaning more criminals on the streets. 

And remember, the deal made with Bill Cosby was all about getting justice. There really was not enough evidence to convict him without his testimony being used against him. The deal ended with his reputation ruined and his victims getting some compensation. That is better than nothing. 

As for what the Supreme Court will do, I have no idea. I would hope that they would rule in Cosby's favor, but they haven't had the best record on defending civil rights. But I don't know enough about their current thoughts on the 5th amendment to say either way. My guess is that they don't even take the case and we probably won't hear about this again.