Courts overturn Bill Cosby's conviction

[MightyGiants]

As much as I don't like things playing out this way, I can't say the court was wrong.  I was surprised when the court allowed so many accusers to testify.   This seems to go against US judicial tradition.   They were essentially prejudicing the jury.   

[LennG]

If you had done to you what Cosby did to all those women and girls, you would want to be heard also.

I don't speak for the law, just common sense. The man used his position of power to do those things to those women and would be locked away for ever. Now he is flashing the victory sign. He is a piece of garbage and now those poor women feel no justice has been served.

That's just the way I see it.

[DaveBrown74]

That Cosby ever got this non proecution agreement in the first place is pretty outrageous, but once that was done, yesterday's decision became pretty academic unfortunately. People have every right to be upset, but the blame does not like with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. They did their job. You can't just pretend the 5th amendment doesn't exist.

[MightyGiants]

That Cosby ever got this non proecution agreement in the first place is pretty outrageous, but once that was done, yesterday's decision became pretty academic unfortunately. People have every right to be upset, but the blame does not like with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. They did their job. You can't just pretend the 5th amendment doesn't exist.

I am not sure how outrageous the non-prosecution agreement was.   The prosecutor did it because he didn't think he had a strong case but he could at least see some justice done in civil court.   When you consider what was needed to get a conviction it appears the prosecutor was correct in his assessment

[MightyGiants]

If you had done to you what Cosby did to all those women and girls, you would want to be heard also.

I don't speak for the law, just common sense. The man used his position of power to do those things to those women and would be locked away for ever. Now he is flashing the victory sign. He is a piece of garbage and now those poor women feel no justice has been served.

That's just the way I see it.

Len,

Look at it this way.   The current prosecutor (and the judge who allowed it) did stuff they shouldnt have.  As a result Bill Cosby spent a couple of years in prison.   The PA Supreme Court was correct to toss out the case.  So at least Cosby spent 2 years in prison, which is at least something

[DaveBrown74]

It's incredible to me that the prosecutor felt they didn't have enough to convict given the number of women who came forward. Rape is obviously a tricky crime to prove in many cases given there is often no physical evidence and given people don't always come forward right away, but I would have thought that when you have that many women all pointing the finger, it becomes more and more compelling to a jury. When it's just one or even two women it's he-said-she-said, but when you have as many as Cosby did that seems like a totally different situation.

How did Cosby's case differ from Harvey Weinstein's from an evidentiary perspective? I guess in Weinstein's case they had a couple of tapes?

[MightyGiants]

It's incredible to me that the prosecutor felt they didn't have enough to convict given the number of women who came forward. Rape is obviously a tricky crime to prove in many cases given there is often no physical evidence and given people don't always come forward right away, but I would have thought that when you have that many women all pointing the finger, it becomes more and more compelling to a jury. When it's just one or even two women it's he-said-she-said, but when you have as many as Cosby did that seems like a totally different situation.

How did Cosby's case differ from Harvey Weinstein's from an evidentiary perspective? I guess in Weinstein's case they had a couple of tapes?

Well on the case that went to trial, it appears they needed not only Bill Cosby's improperly obtained testimony, but they needed to take the improper step of having other accusers testify at the trial (as I understand it the first trial without all those testimonies ended with a hung jury). 

That's the thing, date rape is a tough crime to prove.