Pennsylvania Prosecutors Ask Supreme Court To Review Bill Cosby’s Overturned Conviction

The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office in Pennsylvania have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision that overturned Bill Cosby‘s indecent exposure conviction.

Prosecutors said in a statement Monday that Cosby, 84, shouldn’t have been granted immunity because a media statement posted by a previous district attorney said sexual assault charges wouldn’t be filed.

“Petitioning to ask the High Court for review was the right thing to do because of the precedent set in this case by the majority opinion of Pennsylvania Supreme Court that prosecutors’ statements in
press releases now seemingly create immunity,” District Attorney Kevin Steele said in the statement. “This decision as it stands will have far-reaching negative consequences beyond Montgomery County and Pennsylvania. The U.S. Supreme Court can right what we believe is a grievous wrong,”

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Cosby’s conviction earlier this summer and ordered the comedian to be released after it found he was denied protection against self-incrimination.

According to NBC News, the state supreme court said a prosecutor’s decision not to charge Cosby in an earlier case allowed Cosby to speak freely in a lawsuit against him, believing he wouldn’t incriminate himself.

However, another prosecutor used the testimony in a criminal trial, which was paramount in his conviction years later.

Cosby’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean said Monday it’s unlikely the Supreme Court would take a case that has no federal implications.

“It demonstrates a remarkable unwillingness to accept the decision of the state high court,” Bonjean said. “It seems unlikely that the United States Supreme Court would review a case like this. It seems like a waste of resources and time.”

Cosby was previously a figure many Black men followed and admired due to the success of The Cosby Show, but he was sent to prison in 2018 for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.

The comedian was convicted on three felony counts and was sentenced to three to ten years in prison; he served almost three years.