Prosecutors have asked the Supreme Court to review the controversial ruling that overturned Bill Cosby's 2018 sexual assault conviction.
On Monday, November 29, they argued that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's June decision will set a dangerous precedent, which could have "far-reaching negative consequences."
The Cosby Show actor, 83, was convicted in 2018 of drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand, and his trial — which was held after more than 50 women came forward with similar stories — was the first significant celebrity conviction of the #MeToo era.
Cosby has categorically denied the allegations against him.
Cosby's conviction was overturned back in June because Philadelphia's highest court said that his due process rights were "violated".
The court ruled that Montgomery County District Attorney, Kevin Steele, was obligated to make an agreement set out by his predecessor to not charge Cosby when he later gave potentially incriminating testimony in a deposition as part of Constand's civil lawsuit.
Justice David Wecht said that the Cosby Show actor had relied on the previous prosecutor's decision not to charge him when he gave his deposition.
Per CNN, he stated that overturning the prosecution was "the only remedy that comports with society’s reasonable expectations of its elected prosecutors and our criminal justice system."
During Cosby's first trial, the judge only allowed one other accuser to testify against him. However, during the retrial they allowed five other accusers to testify about alleged incidents that took place during the 1980s.
The state Supreme Court ruled that that testimony tainted the trial, even though a lower court had declared it appropriate — and said that he cannot be retried on the same charges.
In a statement shared on Monday, per CBS News, Montgomery County District Attorney, Kevin Steele, announced the petition to the Supreme Court.
He claimed that the June decision would set a dangerous precedent to honor press released from district attorneys as lasting immunity guarantees and that it could also encourage other convicted felons to ask for immunity under the same precedent.
"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," the statement read.
"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."
A representative from Cosby's camp has since issued a response to the statement, telling CBS News that there is "no merit" to Steele's petition.
"This is a pathetic last-ditch effort that will not prevail," they said, adding that the petition "centers on the unique facts of the Cosby case and has no impact on important federal questions of law."
Ex-basketball player, Andrea Constand, first came forward about her encounters with Cosby back in 2005 — however, it was only in 2018 that he was found guilty on three counts of drugging and sexually assaulting her.
Constand, who was decades Cosby's junior, met him in 2002 while working at Temple University in Philadelphia. She later testified that he had drugged and molested her at his home in January 2004 – an incident that left her "frozen".
Former state prosecutor, Bruce Castor, did not press criminal charges in regards to Constand's 2005 allegations, though. She proceeded to sue Cosby for sexual battery and defamation, and reached a confidential settlement in 2006.
In 2014 and 2015, dozens of women came forward with similar allegations of drugging and assault. Unfortunately, laws around the statute of limitations meant that authorities could not pursue the majority of these claims, with the earliest allegation having taken place in the mid-1960s.
They did, though, reopen Constand's case, and charged Cosby just days before the 12-year limit on her allegations was due to expire.
On 25 September 2018, Cosby was sentenced to three to ten years in state prison, and a $25,000 fine — in what was then declared a win for the #MeToo movement.
