So I guess you can just be grateful that your mom, you, your daughter or your granddaughter never came across Bill. I think sometimes people forget we are talking about someone’s loved ones……

Please tell me, what Hollywood organization, or any other network is airing Cosby's reruns? I am sure you wouldn't have written that post if you were not certain that it was true. Attacking Hollywood is always good for scoring points.

Now that his conviction has been set aside, do you believe he belongs back on TV or do you favor continuing to "cancel" him?

Totally false. While the "Metoo movement may have helped slightly, the vast majority of cases still aren't reported - especially against the wealthy or celebrities. Cosby's situation will certainly not increase the percentage of reported cases either and is the perfect example of why women are reluctant to go through everything that is involved in going to the police.

Facts and Statistics – Central MN Sexual Assault Center

LAWYERS, LAWYERS, LAWYERS
How about Sumter County ? A case in process. $ 700+ dollar larceny, a confession, videos, well documented. The case is 18 months old and the State Attorney has no resolution on the horizon. The victim has never been contacted by the State Attorney. Expect victims to be victims of the system.
It’s real people!

There is a difference between justice which is about "fairness" and the truth. The purpose of courts is to achieve justice which give them legitimacy and authority. The court found that his agreement with a prosecutor required him --in effect-- to testify against himself which is unfair.

Ohiobuckeye
 

You know robbery & what Bill Cosby did is like Apples & Orange’s. Not saying either one is right but they both got what law required for their crime. But think about all the other sex crimes over the yrs. & what they got. Cosby never killed anybody & just me but I think he did his time. I got to spend a little time with Mr. Cosby yrs. back when he visited Fo. Mo. Co. He was a great dad & husband! Personally I was shocked when charges was brought against him.

Ancient debate. Law, crime, is our goal to punish, or to reform. Fame, often sets a new standard as it becomes a public issue. Then with Bill Cosby we can toss in the endless race issue.

Accepting a plea sadly is a major part of our legal system. Fair, a regularly used term is in the eye of the beholder. Punishment often depends on your budget as well as who you know and what others know you might release about them.

Exactly....thank you for writing this. It's not that he was innocent, the law worked for him. Others can still pursue him- if statue has not run out.

This whole situation is absurd, and I feel bad for all those victims, BUT, I can appreciate that the law worked.

We all tend to use terms like justice, like fair, like truth, like legitimacy, like authority all important WORDS. There are books, several books debating what they mean.

Over the years. Cosby, he might have been hung from a tree. Put in a cage on London bridge till he starved to death and his body rotten away. On a rack, the wheel you would confess to anything. Our legal system? Justice huh? Been there.

Far too many lawyers.....
Use,
Abuse
Or hide behind
The law.

Which ever benefits most......and sometimes even for the client!

BillCosby
 

I am glad he is free now. I am sure some of those women were paid well by him. Also he has good lawyers. Let’s adhere the law of the land.........his freedom........💥✨🌟🌙⭐️💫

Watch your drinks!

Money will get you out of anything in most cases. He's definitely guilty and deserves to be in prison t he rest of his life. It's a shame that someone who abused so many women is now able to live his life as if he didn't do anything wrong.

He may be free, but the world knows he's is a lowlife woman drugging serial rapist. He's not free because he's innocent, he's still as guilty as he was the day he was convicted.

This isn’t about money or guilt/innocence. It’s about prosecutorial misconduct. The ruling is correct, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t sue the city.

He "confessed" to absolutely nothing. He continues to maintain his innocence as of yesterday. See Post #6.

Wonder why this did not come out before the trial?

He seems to be guilty but wonder how many of these suits are phony?

So what exactly do you object to in my previous response? I'm confused by your need to make this personal.

This is why Women DO NOT REPORT THESE CRIMES.... no one EVER believes them how ever much evidence there is..... Are 50 + women really wrong about this predator.. I do not think so. Shame on the "old boy network".. Blame the victim.

The OP, and most replies, miss the point of the court's decision and the reversal of Cosby's conviction.

The decision had nothing to do with Cosby's guilt or innocence. It had to do with prosecutorial misconduct. The District Attorney then in office, made a promise to Cosby that his testimony would not be used against him if he testified at a deposition in a civil case and did not invoke his 5th Amendment privilege. Years later, a new District Attorney breached the promise of his predecessor and prosecuted Cosby using his deposition testimony to convict him.

There are so many things wrong with the conduct of the new District Attorney that I wonder if he ever studied legal ethics in law school and marvel that he has not faced disciplinary action by the Bar. Our legal system, for all its faults, cannot exist when public officials break promises, whether they or their predecessor made the promise. This extends to the lowest level of prosecutorial authority. For example, if the lowest ranking Deputy in the office made such a promise to a suspect, the highest ranking Deputy could not say the promise should not have been made and then breach the promise, once the suspect has testified. The political and social winds may change, but a prosecutor's word must not. Today, no self-respecting prosecutor would even consider making such a promise to a suspect in a sexual assault case. However, one was made to Cosby, and was, subsequently, broken.

This extends throughout the criminal justice system and is not confined to the prosecutors. For example, a police officer cannot tell a suspect that if he confesses he will not be prosecuted, and, later, have that promise breached. For those of you who watch TV and read police procedural novels, do not be confused by lies the police are allowed to make--i.e."we found your fingerprints on the body"; "your buddy has set you up to take the rap" etc, which induce the suspect to then confess.

I proudly served as both an Assistant United States Attorney and as a Deputy District Attorney and spent 40 years before the bar. When this story first broke four years ago, I was shocked to hear that such a promise was made to Cosby by the District Attorney and more shocked to hear the current District Attorney was breaking his predecessor's promise. Anyone with even a smattering of experience in the criminal justice system, whether as an attorney, judge, or police officer, knew the prosecution was on shaky ground.

And THIS exaggeration is one of the reasons why we have a problem with this discussion. What you so strongly assert in capital letters is simply not true:

1. Women do report these crimes. You are only aware of the Cosby case because women reported the crimes. You are also aware of the multiple cases at Fox because women reported the crimes. Perhaps not all women report the crimes and that needs to be improved but women DO report these crimes.

2. Many people do believe the women, no matter how little evidence there is. The default is to believe the women, even when there is no evidence. But you cannot, in this country, take away someone's freedom on just the word of another; to get a conviction at trial you need evidence regardless of how much you believe the women.

3. Other than Cosby, in this case few are saying that 50+ women are wrong. The ruling that released him did not say that 50+ women are wrong.

4. Good ole boy network? The court ruled against the prosecutor; you would think that the prosecutor would be part of any good ole boy network.

5. Where in any of this was any victim blamed? Where? The court ruled against the District Attorney, the prosecutor, and the process that convicted Cosby, not the evidence and not the victims.

In order to move forward in this case and in our national conversation, we need to stop the exaggeration and deal with the facts.

You are missing the point that a lot of women were mentioned in this civil case confession and not just the one whose criminal case Bill Cosby in which was found guilty. Where are their due process considerations? This just looks like lawyers spinning legal technicalities to get their client free any way they can. Where is the concern for equity towards Cosby's many victims? The lawyer messed up so the victims/survivors pay the consequences. Fairness to ALL parties should be a primary consideration not just that of the already justly convicted. Cosby got his days in court. Those other survivors/victims of his actions not so much. Jurisdiction: Equity | Federal Judicial Center

It is sad that he got off but blame the the DA for stupidity.

Wish these women would have come forward in a much more timely manner.

Hopefully, stupidity was the only thing involved. I don't understand why a criminal prosecutor would be making any promises related to a civil court case, where millions of dollars are at stake.

This does have a lot of do with whom they were accusing of such actions. Bill Cosby was beloved by many and seems to hide his dark side extremely well. He still denies any wrongdoing even though he confessed to it in a civil deposition. Bill Cosby freed from prison as sex conviction is overturned | WGN-TV

Simple - M O N E Y T A L K S

The prosecutor, Bruce Castor, who promised not to prosecute Cosby, is now trying to explain his decision. He needs to stop talking and go away. His promise allowed a woman to get millions of dollars from Cosby, but gave him immunity from prosecution, and provided no value to the state, for whom he works. His job is to prosecute criminals, not to assist civil plaintiffs in a lawsuit by giving immunity. What a terrible decision. My opinion.

The concerns about other victims is understandable. As to any particular victim, most states provide for a civil settlement agreed to by the perpetrator, victim, and prosecutor to be made which then bars a criminal prosecution. These can by criticized as "the rich buying their way out of trouble"; however, they can be useful as a way of compensating a victim and lessening the harm done to him or her. I agreed to several of these while a deputy district attorney, of course, always with the approval of my superiors.

For those critical of the result in the Cosby case, they should consider whether they really want a legal system where a prosecutor can make a promise to a suspect, on which the suspect then relies, and which the prosecutor could then break. Can you imagine a system where a defendant agrees to plead guilty based on a prosecutor's promise that he would recommend a sentence of 10 years only to have the prosecutor, at sentencing, ask the judge for a sentence of 20 years, saying that he made a mistake in promising to only ask for 10 years?

Thanks for the explanation. But, according to Bruce Casper, he made no settlement agreement with either Cosby or the victim. He just promised not to prosecute Cosby, so he could not refuse to testify in the civil case. And, apparently, he did not get approval from his superiors.

??? He didn't make an agreement he just made a promise? The promise IS the agreement and the basis for releasing Cosby. If that is the argument he is trying to make then it just proves his incompetence.

And it looks like it was just a promise made verbally and not written down anywhere. Bill Cosby released from prison after Pa. Supreme Court overturns sexual assault conviction

In his interview, Casper said that he made a promise, not an agreement, or a settlement. Apparently, the only reason for the promise was so Cosby could not claim the fifth amendment and refuse to testify in the civil case.

Hey, hey, hey! Looks like Gloria Allred is going after (prison nickname "OG" for "original gangster") Bill. Go get him, Gloria! Bill Cosby accusers''' attorney Gloria Allred says she'''ll proceed with civil suit against him | Fox News

Those prosecutors must of graduated from same school of law OJ’s prosecutors did? University of incompetent law school for prosecutors.

According to what I have read, the promise and the position was documented well by the stenographer during Castor's testimony in the civil case. He explained why he was the only one who could have made that call and why he made that call.

And that, precisely, was the agreement or understanding. Castor made the promise with the intention that it would eliminate Cosby's ability to claim his 5th amendment protection during the civil case. Whether Castor conspired with the defendant or not, his promise forced Cosby to testify against himself and secured a verdict for the victim.

So either we believe Castor had an agreement with the victim, likely unwritten and possibly unspoken, to drop the criminal case in a way that forced Cosby to testify in the civil case or we believe Castor made the promise for absolutely no reason at all.

We have no way of knowing what Castor's motivation was but assuming he was not entirely a fool, he must have had some plan for why he made the promise.

Castor said today he didn't have the needed evidence to secure a criminal conviction, the decision was his to provide the "victim" an opportunity to win a civil suit. And she left a multi-millionaire. Boo-hoo.

And I say "victim" bc she put herself in the same situation not once, not twice, but three times and then cried foul. WTF? I ain't buying.

You can watch the Cosby Show airs on TVONE, Prime airs Fat Albert, Cosby airs free on Fawesome, The Cosby air on YouTube and you can watch pretty much any of his movies on demand………will continue to cancel him in my home pretty much for ever. He is still guilty

Not personal you are standing up for him when he is guilty.
My point is if it was someone you know would you be so fast to stand by him….knowing all you should know

What I know is the 1st prosecutor states he didn't have evidence to convict, 1st trial ended w hung jury. Doesn't appear there was clear and convincing evidence of guilt, does there? 2nd trial was during the peak of the bullsh!t Me Too Movement and 50 more women come forward. What are the odds that all 50 experienced assault by BC and NONE of the 50 reported the event when it happened? 50. At the 2nd trial the "victim" beefed up the details of the alleged molestation, her testimony changed. At the 2nd trial the judge allowed 5 of those 50 accusers testify. None reported their assaults but they testified to it as if fact. I don't stand by BC, I stand with any person being accused decades later of a crime that may not have happened. Show me the proof. In this case, there wasn't the proof to send a man to prison. Ask any trial attorney if jurors tend to find with the facts or with their hearts.

FWIW, I think the 2nd prosecutor, the one who stepped all over BC's 5th A rights, should be criminally charged and civilly accountable. THAT should never be acceptable to any American citizen. Why aren't you concerned about that piece?