Though Bill Cosby was freed from prison last June after spending three years behind bars for sexual assault charges, thanks to the decision of a Pennsylvania appeals court, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania prosecutors want his case revived, going as far as asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take it up.
According to FoxNews, Cosby’s lawyer has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the prosecutor’s bid to revive the case, partly because the lawyer doesn’t believe his case rises to the interest of a case that would be taken up by SCOTUS.
“Notwithstanding the commonwealth’s warning of imminent catastrophic consequences, the Cosby holding will likely be confined to its own ‘rare, if not entirely unique’ set of circumstances, making review by this court particularly unjustified,” Cosby lawyer Jennifer Bonjean wrote in her response to the high court.
The petition to revive the case, brought to the high court by District Attorney Kevin Steele, is likely to be ignored by SCOTUS regardless, as Fox noted that it only accepts less than 1% of petitions it receives throughout the year.
Dangerous precedent
The request to revive the sexual assault case involving “America’s Dad” was submitted last November. It came as a result of the appeals court ruling that overturned the case, citing an alleged agreement Cosby had with former Montgomery County prosecutor Bruce Castor.
Steele argued in his request that overturning convictions, especially in high-profile cases, due to “closed-door” deals, such as the one supposedly struck between Cosby and Castor, sets a dangerous new precedent for similar cases.
The DA pointed to the only known existence of such a deal, which was a press release reportedly issued in 2005 from Castor’s office that explained it didn’t have enough evidence to charge Cosby at the time.
“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,” Steele wrote in his SCOTUS petition, as Fox News reported last year.
While Cosby’s defense lawyers argue that his case never should have gone to trial because of the agreement, the prosecutors in the case raised doubts that such an agreement with Castor ever existed.
Rocky legal history
Cosby, who once helmed the most popular sitcom on American television, has reportedly paid out numerous multi-million-dollar settlements to women who’ve accused him of varying degrees of sexual misconduct, as the Daily Mail noted.
In total, eight women had taken some form of civil action against the former TV star and comedian, with only one of the women filing criminal charges against him.
Only time will tell if the Pennsylvania prosecutor gets the Supreme Court’s attention on the case, but at this point, it’s probably safe to bet that the high court has much bigger fish to fry.
