Bill Cosby Isn’t Getting Out of Prison Anytime Soon
Credit to Author: Emma Ockerman| Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2019 20:12:44 +0000
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Bill Cosby is staying in prison, at least until his lawyers can figure out how to launch — and win — another appeal.
The disgraced entertainer lost his appeal to overturn his April 2018 sexual assault conviction in Pennsylvania’s Superior Court Tuesday. The 82-year-old is currently serving a 3- to 10-year prison sentence after he was convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his Philadelphia home in 2004.
Cosby’s lawyers had argued that during his retrial last year, a judge improperly allowed five women to testify against him when only one woman initially testified in his 2017 trial, according to the Associated Press. Therefore, the defense attorneys argued, his three-count conviction for drugging and sexually assault should be overturned.
The Pennsylvania Superior Court rejected that argument and ruled the testimony was relevant since Cosby had a pattern of drugging and assaulting women, and more than 60 women had accused him of misconduct. Cosby’s attorneys said they’ll now take their appeal to the state’s Supreme Court.
“We’re not shocked because it shows the world that this isn’t about justice, but this is a political scheme to destroy ‘America’s Dad.’ However they will not stop us, and we will prevail in the State Supreme Court,” Andrew Wyatt, a spokesman for Cosby, said in a statement to the Associated Press. “Mr. Cosby remains hopeful and he stands behind his innocence.”
Cosby said in November that he expects to serve the maximum, decade-long sentence because he will not express remorse, as he believes his interactions with Constand were consensual.
In the bid to overturn his conviction, Cosby’s attorneys also argued that prosecutors unfairly read deposition he provided in Constand’s 2005 civil lawsuit, which he said he only gave because a Montgomery County district attorney promised not to prosecute him, according to NBC News. The appeals court rejected that, too, and wrote in Tuesday’s decision that there was no formalized non-prosecution agreement.
Cover image: November 25th 2019 – Bill Cosby – in his first interview from prison – vows no remorse for his actions and expects to serve his full 10-year maximum sentence for sexual assault. – File Photo by: zz/Dennis Van Tine/STAR MAX/IPx 2018 4/12/18 Bill Cosby at his trial for sexual assault in Norristown, PA.
This article originally appeared on VICE US.