Supreme Court rules against prosecutors in Bill Cosby case, prosecutors lose case

 

Bill Cosby at his 2018 trial. Reuters.

The US Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by prosecutors in the Bill Cosby case. Reuters. Cosby was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison in connection to a 2004 case where he was accused of a sexual assault. However, an appeals court ruled that the conviction was invalid because Cosby had been promised immunity by prosecutors so he would testify in a civil trial. However, a new prosecutor ignored the deal to not prosecute Cosby and used testimony in the civil trial to help convict him. The prosecutors appealed to the United States Supreme Court after losing in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court but the court refused to hear the case. 

My Comment:

It's crazy to me that the prosecutors in this case even brought it to the Supreme Court as I felt the lower courts got the case right. If you make a deal so someone is forced to testify in a civil trial, you can't use that information for a criminal case. It's a textbook 5th amendment violation and it's a good thing that they lost. 

That doesn't mean I support Bill Cosby, far from it. He's pretty obviously guilty of the crimes he was accused of. He's a sexual predator and he deserves prison, even though he served some time already. I don't think anyone should be happy that the prosecutors screwed up in this case. 

But with that being said, I am very glad that Bill Cosby's rights were protected. Cosby is a hated criminal and the rights of people like him are the most important to be protected. Because if prosecutors bend and break the rules trying to throw him into prison they can do the same thing to normal folks as well. What the prosecutors did here was way out of line and I am glad that the US Supreme Court made it clear that they don't support what these prosecutors did. 

Plus, it's not like Bill Cosby wasn't punished here. He lost the civil case, spent some time in prison and will never have much of a career again. People aren't going to support a career resurgence and people understand that he was guilty of what he was accused of. 

I think this is a reassuring case in our justice system. All too often people bend or break the rules to punish people that the mob hates. Cosby deserves some of that hate but everyone has a right to defend themselves in court. The prosecutors violated those rights and now they have been shown conclusively to be wrong. Sure, Cosby will walk, but maybe the next time a prosecutor thinks about doing something like this they will think twice.