Parole Denied
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I don't know if he is or not. I do have a problem with trying any sexual harassment or assault case in the days of Believe All Women. I think women lie just as much as men.
OTOH, if you talk to the cons in the joint, every one of them will lie and say he's innocent.
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@jolly said in Parole Denied:
Maybe he doesn't think he's guilty?
@jolly said in Parole Denied:
Maybe he doesn't think he's guilty?
I'm sure he doesn't think he's guilty. That doesn't change his situation, nor does it change the criteria for his release.
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Yes, it does.
Should an innocent person admit guilt?
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@jolly said in Parole Denied:
Should an innocent person admit guilt?
I'm not sure that agreeing to participate in the treatment programs is necessarily an admission of guilt.
Other reasons for the denial include:
- a negative recommendation from the DoC
- no "parole release plan"
I think if he REALLY wanted out, it would be trivial to go to the programs required and to do the paperwork.
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It might well be. I admit I'm playing a bit of Devil's Advocate. And as I said, Crosby may be guilty as sin. I went back and looked and he has always maintained his innocence.
But the time period in which he was tried, was at the height if the #MeToo movement. Prior bad conduct witnesses were allowed at his trial, which is not always allowed and judicial review does admit that without those witnesses, he was less likely to be convicted, as his accuser's testimony was uncorroborated.
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It's Bing Crosby. It's Bill Cosby. C'mon man!
And it's Bing cherries, and Bill payments.
See? It's called English, and there's a different word for almost everything.
I wonder if he's broke, after all the lawyers took his money. Maybe he doesn't want out so much. In his 80's, many of his friends made over the years have likely died. Sad. The whole thing including those gals that were doped up, is sad. Most of them are old now, or already dead. Everyone's getting old. The planet is slowing down. We're all doomed anyway. Depressing.
Thanks, Bill!
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It's pragmatic to never admit guilt at his age, even if it means he has to spend the last few years in prison. Admitting guilt will destroy his legacy more so than it's been destroyed now. I imagine he cares about that. I also imagine that he knows he's guilty.
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say it ain’t so, Bill.
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He's a rapist.
Sure, his show was nice. But he's a rapist.
There's a ton of people in prison for smoking and selling blow. I'd let them out before the rapists.
If they start letting out people who say they're innocent, you won't need any more prisons.
Whether or not Bill Cosby says he's innocent isn't really the point.
Maybe we should worry more about non-celebrities who are rotting in jail.
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Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction and opened the way for his immediate release from prison Wednesday in a stunning reversal of fortune for the comedian once known as “America’s Dad,” ruling that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor's agreement not to charge Cosby.
Cosby, 83, has served more than two years of a three- to 10-year sentence after being found guilty of drugging and violating Temple University sports administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era.
Cosby was arrested in 2015, when a district attorney armed with newly unsealed evidence — the comic's damaging deposition testimony in a lawsuit brought by Constand — brought charges against him days before the 12-year statute of limitations ran out.
But the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that District Attorney Kevin Steele, who made the decision to arrest Cosby, was obligated to stand by his predecessor’s promise not to charge Cosby. There was no evidence that promise was ever put in writing.
Justice David Wecht, writing for a split court, said Cosby had relied on the former prosecutor’s decision not to charge him when the comedian later gave his potentially incriminating testimony in the Constand’s civil case.
The court said that overturning the conviction, and barring any further prosecution, “is the only remedy that comports with society’s reasonable expectations of its elected prosecutors and our criminal justice system.”
A Cosby spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Nor did a Steele representative, Constand or her lawyer.
The trial judge allowed five other accusers to testify at the trial about their experiences with Cosby in the 1980s to establish what prosecutors said was a pattern of behavior on his part.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices voiced concern not just about sex assault cases, but what they saw as the judiciary’s increasing tendency to allow testimony that crosses the line into character attacks. The law allows the testimony only in limited cases, including to show a crime pattern so specific it serves to identify the perpetrator.
But the court declined to say whether five other accusers should have been allowed to testify, considering it moot given their ruling on Cosby’s claim that he should not have been prosecuted in the first place.
In New York, the judge presiding over last year’s trial of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, whose case had sparked the explosion of the #MeToo movement in 2017, let four other accusers testify. Weinstein was convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison. He is now facing separate charges in California.
In May, Cosby was denied paroled after refusing to participate in sex offender programs behind bars. He has long said he would resist the treatment programs and refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing even if it means serving the full 10-year sentence.
Prosecutors said Cosby repeatedly used his fame and “family man” persona to manipulate young women, holding himself out as a mentor before betraying them.
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Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction and opened the way for his immediate release from prison Wednesday in a stunning reversal of fortune for the comedian once known as “America’s Dad,” ruling that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor's agreement not to charge Cosby.
Cosby, 83, has served more than two years of a three- to 10-year sentence after being found guilty of drugging and violating Temple University sports administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era.
Cosby was arrested in 2015, when a district attorney armed with newly unsealed evidence — the comic's damaging deposition testimony in a lawsuit brought by Constand — brought charges against him days before the 12-year statute of limitations ran out.
But the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that District Attorney Kevin Steele, who made the decision to arrest Cosby, was obligated to stand by his predecessor’s promise not to charge Cosby. There was no evidence that promise was ever put in writing.
Justice David Wecht, writing for a split court, said Cosby had relied on the former prosecutor’s decision not to charge him when the comedian later gave his potentially incriminating testimony in the Constand’s civil case.
The court said that overturning the conviction, and barring any further prosecution, “is the only remedy that comports with society’s reasonable expectations of its elected prosecutors and our criminal justice system.”
A Cosby spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Nor did a Steele representative, Constand or her lawyer.
The trial judge allowed five other accusers to testify at the trial about their experiences with Cosby in the 1980s to establish what prosecutors said was a pattern of behavior on his part.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices voiced concern not just about sex assault cases, but what they saw as the judiciary’s increasing tendency to allow testimony that crosses the line into character attacks. The law allows the testimony only in limited cases, including to show a crime pattern so specific it serves to identify the perpetrator.
But the court declined to say whether five other accusers should have been allowed to testify, considering it moot given their ruling on Cosby’s claim that he should not have been prosecuted in the first place.
In New York, the judge presiding over last year’s trial of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, whose case had sparked the explosion of the #MeToo movement in 2017, let four other accusers testify. Weinstein was convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison. He is now facing separate charges in California.
In May, Cosby was denied paroled after refusing to participate in sex offender programs behind bars. He has long said he would resist the treatment programs and refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing even if it means serving the full 10-year sentence.
Prosecutors said Cosby repeatedly used his fame and “family man” persona to manipulate young women, holding himself out as a mentor before betraying them.
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An explanation from the RWEC:
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.
More from The NY Post.
In its 79-page ruling, the State Supreme court found that an agreement with then-Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor Jr. prevented Cosby from being charged for allegedly drugging and molesting Andrea Constand in 2004.
Constand first reported the alleged encounter in 2015 to Castor, who decided not to pursue charges in the case.
There was no evidence that the deal — which opened the door for Cosby to testify in Constand’s civil suit — was ever put in writing. That damning testimony was used, in part, to help convict Cosby.
In 2019, Castor’s successor, Kevin Steele, opted to file charges against Cosby — just days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired.
Later during the criminal proceedings, the judge agreed to allow testimony from Cosby’s deposition — which included him admitting to using quaaludes during consensual sexual encounters with women in the 1970s — to be used against him.
Wednesday’s ruling said the prosecution was obligated to uphold Castor’s promise not to charge the comedian.
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@horace said in Parole Denied:
I guess we all owe Mr Cosby an apology.
Don't hold your breath on my account
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I'm not arguing the legality, but clearly, they made a real mess of this.
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The general consensus online seems to be that Cosby forfeited his rights as soon as he was accused, and now that he got off on a technicality, it’s likely that we will soon have 100,000,000 rapes a day and no one will say anything about it.
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A clear message
An alarming new era
It is open season
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/30/opinions/cosby-release-alarming-message-alaimo/index.html
Bill Cosby's release sends clear message for an alarming new era
(CNN)Bill Cosby, who has been accused of misconduct by 60 women, was released from prison Wednesday after Pennsylvania's Supreme Court overturned his sexual assault conviction. That he is a free man today sends a profoundly disturbing message to women who survive sexual assault: that if they come forward they will confront all but insurmountable hurdles as they pursue justice.
In 2018, Cosby was convicted by a jury of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2004, but the court ruled that a deal he struck with a prosecutor to avoid prosecution in exchange for a deposition in a civil case had been improperly used against him, and that he should not have been charged in the criminal case.
Recall that Cosby has been accused of misconduct by 60 different women. "I have always maintained my innocence," he tweeted on Wednesday.
