Prosecutors asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Pennsylvania high court ruling granting freedom to Bill Cosby, arguing the reasoning for his release could set a dangerous precedent.
Cosby’s lawyers argue the 84-year-old comedian relied on a promise that he would never be charged for sexual assault if he gave damaging testimony in an accuser’s civil suit in 2006 and that he never should have gone to trial because of a “non-prosecution agreement.” However, the only written evidence of such a promise is a 2005 press release from then-prosecutor Bruce Castor, who said he did not have sufficient evidence for an arrest, and prosecutors are now raising concerns that press releases could be used as immunity agreements in the future, according to the Associated Press.
“This decision as it stands will have far-reaching negative consequences beyond Montgomery County and Pennsylvania,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele wrote in the petition. “The U.S. Supreme Court can right what we believe is a grievous wrong.”
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Prosecutors also complained the chief judge of the state’s high court appeared to misstate key facts of the case in July. Castor’s successors, who gathered new evidence and led to Cosby being arrested in 2015, say it falls far short of a lifetime immunity agreement and doubt Castor ever made such a deal.
The U.S. Supreme Court accepts fewer than 1% of the petitions it receives, making it unlikely Cosby’s case will be revived.
Cosby was one of the first powerful men to be accused, tried, and convicted in the #MeToo era.
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Cosby had been accused of and tried for sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, who said that the encounter took place in 2004.
He spent three years in prison before he was released on June 30 after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated his sentence. The actor, who had been known as “America’s Dad,” was charged in late 2015 with sexual assault just before the statute of limitations was set to expire.
