10 things you need to know today: July 1, 2021

Bill Cosby's sexual assault conviction is overturned, grand jury indicts Trump Organization and its CFO, and more

Bill Cosby
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1. Cosby released from prison after sexual assault conviction overturned

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned comedian Bill Cosby's sexual assault conviction, and ordered his release from prison. The court reversed lower court rulings by finding that Cosby's right against self-incrimination was violated. The decision hinged on a prosecutor's decision years ago not to prosecute Cosby, who then spoke freely about the matter in a lawsuit, only to have that testimony used against him by another prosecutor. The state's high court called that "an affront to fundamental fairness." Cosby was convicted on three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault in 2018 for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2004, and was three years into a three- to 10-year sentence. Some of the dozens of women who have accused Cosby of sexual abuse called the decision to free him a grave injustice.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.