Bill Cosby to 'be out of prison in hours' after conviction is overturned
Bill Cosby is set to leave prison after a court overturned his sexual assault conviction.
Cosby, who was sentenced to between three and 10 years in prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004, had his sentence overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday, and NBC News' Craig Melvin reports that he "will be out of prison in hours."
The court concluded that an agreement Cosby had with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged, according to The Associated Press. Cosby's team had appealed his conviction and argued that the "presumption of innocence just didn't exist for him" because of testimony from five "prior bad acts" witnesses.
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Cosby previously lost an appeal of his conviction in 2019, with Variety writing at the time that an appeals court said "no written non-prosecution agreement exists," and that the previous prosecutor, Bruce Castor, "did not have the power to unilaterally immunize Cosby in any case."
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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
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