Bill Cosby prosecutors take case to US high court
Prosecutors asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the
ruling that overturned Bill Cosby’s conviction, arguing in a petition Monday
that a decision announced in a press release does not give a defendant lifetime
immunity.
Prosecutors said the ruling could set a dangerous precedent
if convictions are overturned over dubious closed-door deals. They have also
complained that the chief judge of the state’s high court appeared to misstate
key facts of the case when he discussed the court ruling that overturned
Cosby’s conviction in a television interview.
“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,” Montgomery County District
Attorney Kevin Steele wrote in the petition, which seeks a Supreme Court review
under the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Cosby’s lawyers have long argued that he relied on a promise
that he would never be charged when he gave damaging testimony in an accuser’s
civil suit in 2006.
The admissions were later used against him in two criminal
trials.
The only written evidence of such a promise is a 2005 press
release from the then-prosecutor, Bruce Castor, who said he did not have enough
evidence to arrest Cosby.
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