By Aaron Miller-
Bill Cosby’s lawyers are requesting the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to either grant him a new trial or drop the case.
The former U.S actor’s legal team are grounding their request in the argument that his 2018 sex assault trial was marred by evidence and testimony that should have been excluded as they ask Pennsylvania’s highest court to throw out the conviction.
Cosby, 83, has served more than two years of his three- to 10-year prison sentence for drugging and molesting a woman he met through the basketball program at his alma mater, Temple University. Other women presented historical allegations at the trial against Cosby, convincing a jury he should be caged for his monstrous acts.
His lawyers hope to persuade a judge to reverse the ruling that has kept one of America’s most famous television faces in a prison cell, with many more years to go. The alleged victims and their families are dreading the possibility of the Supreme Court buying the argument of Cosby’s lawyers. A successful hearing would polarise America and potentially lead to an ugly backlash.
Unexpected
The High Court’s approval of Cosby’s appeal in June, was unexpected, considering the rejection from a state appellate court . Most legal experts expected the same outcome for Cosby’s appeal at the Supreme Court.
Prejudicial
The court issued a one-page order saying it would review the appellate panel’s decision on Cosby’s case based first on whether O’Neill’s decision to allow other accusers to testify about alleged, uncharged “prior bad acts” by Cosby was prejudicial as opposed to probative, a standard used to allow or disallow testimony.
Prosecutors remain convinced that the accounts of Cosby’s victims were too similar to the charges raised in the trial to be mere coincidence, making them very relevant.
“It is unusual, to say the least, that defendant has been repeatedly… accused of engaging in sexual conduct with unconscious or otherwise incapacitated young women,” prosecutors wrote in their brief on the appeal.
Witnesses
One aspect of Cosby’s appeal, which will be heard virtually by the seven justices because of pandemic restrictions, attacks the decision by Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill to allow testimony at the trial by five “prior bad act” witnesses.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in oral arguments on Tuesday morning are also scheduled to assess two issues stemming from the trial.
Cosby’ expensive defence team are challenging the judge’s decision to let five other accusers testify for the prosecution about their encounters with Cosby in the 1980s. The women said Cosby offered them acting training or mentorship, but then sexually assaulted them after they were drugged or intoxicated.
The alleged conduct is similar to the allegation made by Andrea Constand who said said she experienced at his estate near Philadelphia in 2004. Courts have long wrestled with decisions about when other accusers should be allowed to testify in criminal cases.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court appears eager to address the issue. The defence will also contest the decision to let the jury hear damaging testimony Cosby gave in a sexual battery and defamation lawsuit Constand filed against him in 2005.
“The American criminal justice system was designed to convict defendants based upon their conduct – not on their general character,” Cosby’s lawyers argue in their brief. “The fervor of the #MeToo movement rendered this cherished constitutional tenet obsolete at Cosby’s trial.”