Bill Cosby was freed from prison Wednesday after Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned his sexual assault conviction, a stunning reversal in a case that marked the first celebrity trial in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
The 83-year-old comedian once known as “America’s Dad” served nearly three years of a three- to 10 year-sentence after being found guilty of drugging and assaulting Temple University sports administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.
In its 79-page opinion, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court wrote that a “non-prosecution agreement” that had been struck between Cosby and former Montgomery County Dist. Atty. Bruce Castor meant that the actor never should have been changed in the case. The judges barred any future prosecution.
The court’s ruling overturned the first significant criminal conviction of the #MeToo era, and comes on the heels of a judge’s decision to extradite Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein to stand trial in California on charges that he sexually assaulted five women in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills.
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