Bill Cosby will remain free and the overturning of his conviction on two sex crimes will stand after the U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will not review it.
The decision, which was not a surprise nor commented on by the court, leaves in place a decision by Pennsylvania’s highest court to throw out his conviction and set him free from prison last year, citing constitutional grounds. The state court said the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor’s agreement not to charge Cosby in the case.
Cosby’s prosecutor, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, last fall asked the court to review the state court decision and possibly reverse the reversal, also citing constitutional grounds.
Previously:Bill Cosby asks Supreme Court not to revive sexual assault cause
The Cosby case was included in a long list of cases the court said Monday it would not hear, and as typical, said nothing about why.
Cosby’s spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, issued a statement to USA TODAY, thanking the high court on behalf of Cosby and his wife and family for “following the rules of law and protecting the Constitutional Rights of ALL American Citizens.”
“Mr. Cosby’s Constitutional Rights were a ‘reprehensible bait and switch’ by Kevin Steele, (trial) Judge Steve T. O’Neill and their cohorts,” Wyatt’s statement said, quoting a line from one of the state court justices.
“This is truly a victory for Mr. Cosby but it shows that cheating will never get you far in life and the corruption that lies within Montgomery County District’s Attorney Office has been brought to the center stage of the world.”
Steele said in a statement to USA TODAY that petitioning the high court was “the right thing to do,” even if there was only a small chance the court would hear it. He also expressed good wishes for Andrea Constand, the woman Cosby was convicted of sexually assaulting in 2018.
“We appreciate the Court’s consideration,” the statement said. “My appreciation also goes to Andrea Constand. All crime victims deserve to be heard, treated with respect and be supported through their day in court. I wish her the best as she moves forward in her life.”
It was always a long shot that the court would take the case, according to legal experts.
Cosby’s accusers, who hoped to see the 84-year-old comic once known as “America’s Dad” back behind bars, were forewarned: The odds were against the court even taking up the case, since it typically turns aside more than 95% of the writs of certiorari presented to it, according to legal analysts.
The court usually accepts only those cases of unique national importance, such as a disputed presidential election, or to resolve disputes on constitutional issues among the states or federal courts. The Cosby case did not reach that level, although Steele argued in his brief that it did.
Cosby was freed from a Pennsylvania state prison following the stunning decision last summer by the state Supreme Court to overturn his conviction. The ruling enraged Cosby’s accusers and prosecutors, released him after nearly three years into a 10-year sentence and shut down the possibility of a new, third trial. (His first trial, in 2017, ended in a hung jury.)
When Cosby was accused of sexually assaulting Constand in 2005, the local prosecutor at the time declined to prosecute for lack of evidence, and told Cosby he had immunity as long as the star sat for a confidential deposition in Constand’s civil suit.
That deposition produced damaging evidence used by Steele to convict Cosby in 2018. The state high court ruled that Cosby’s trial was unfair due to failure to uphold what amounted to an immunity deal.
Steele said the question he presented to the Supreme Court asked whether, when a prosecutor publicly announces that he will not file criminal charges based on lack of evidence, does the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment transform that announcement into a binding promise that no charges will ever be filed, a promise that a defendant may rely on as if it were a grant of immunity.
