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- 83-year-old Bill Cosby was released from prison after his sexual assault case was overturned on a technicality
- Cosby’s TV wife Phylicia Rashad angered many after celebrating Cosby’s release from prison
- Read more Brobible culture articles here
Cosby show actress Phylicia Rashad celebrated Bill Cosby’s release from prison on social media and immediately received backlash from the Internet.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court shocked many when they announced they had decided to overturn Cosby’s sexual assault conviction due to a technicality in the case.
BREAKING: Pennsylvania’s highest court has overturned Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction after finding that an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged. The 83-year-old comedian has served more than two years in prison. https://t.co/1MufDs2yjP
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 30, 2021
Via The AP
The former “Cosby Show” star was arrested in 2015, when a district attorney armed with newly unsealed evidence — the comic’s damaging deposition in a lawsuit brought by Constand — brought charges against him days before the 12-year statute of limitations ran out.
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 district attorney’s decision not to charge him when the comedian gave his potentially incriminating testimony in Constand’s civil case.
The court called Cosby’s arrest “an affront to fundamental fairness, particularly when it results in a criminal prosecution that was forgone for more than a decade.”
The justices 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.”
Phylicia Rashad, who played Cosby’s wife on the long-running TV show and was recently appointed the dean of Howard University’s fine arts college, celebrated Bill’s release on Twitter by stating a “terrible wrong has been righted.”
https://twitter.com/PhyliciaRashad/status/1410289746539130882
Rashad’s tweet immediately drew the ire of the Internet
https://twitter.com/coreyreynoldsLA/status/1410309152547622913
Bill Cosby admitted to drugging women and he was released on a technicality. Bill Cosby is still a rapist, and I hope the Cosby Show residual checks are worth what is left of your dignity. https://t.co/LId0SIymgs
— Christopher Bouzy (spoutible.com/cbouzy) (@cbouzy) June 30, 2021
Phylicia! #BillCosby being released from prison on a technicality is a complete miscarriage of justice & will never be an exoneration for the brutal crimes he committed against women. The world is now woke & women will no longer be silenced. You should be ashamed of yourself. https://t.co/BVWbmZME3m
— Gretchen Carlson (@GretchenCarlson) June 30, 2021
This is disgusting. And it will have some not inconsiderable fallout at @HowardU, where she was recently appointed the Dean of the Arts School. https://t.co/jgr8e58yrA
— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) June 30, 2021
So in this instance, kids, your favorite TV mom is loud and wrong. There was no miscarriage of justice, and Cosby is being released on a technicality. I will explain it all in this thread. https://t.co/K9HtjpLC1Y
— first of all, bitch, … (Yeah Mo!) (@thejournalista) June 30, 2021
https://twitter.com/yumcoconutmilk/status/1410297007357501442
If Phylicia Rashad was gonna pick a hill to die on it had to be this one huh… and she is now a Dean of a school at a University https://t.co/qCghXdOSQA
— Atima Omara (@atima_omara) June 30, 2021